The Angels of the Era of Eternity
by Pyeknu
Summary: Sequel to "Avalonians and Questors," x-over with other series. A year after the Yaminokuni trip, Moroboshi Hiromi and friends encounter an aircraft carrier from ages ago, now proceeding to complete its mission seventy years later! Will the crew of the Yonaga realise World War Two is over . . . or will they die at Pearl Harbour? And who will man the new Japanese Starship Yonaga?
1. The Seventh Carrier Sails

Off the coast of Siberia in the Bering Sea, between Ytygran and Arakamčečen Islands, Friday 24 June 2011, mid-afternoon . . .

"So what is it?"

"I can't say," the helmsman of the deep-draft fishing boat that had spent hours traversing the calm waters of the Bering Sea to get here from Providénija replied as she gazed on the ice-bound inlet located near the western tip of Arakamčečen, a triangular-shaped outcropping of rock 150 kilometres from the Bering Strait that divided the eastern tip of Siberia's Čukótskij Peninsula from the western tip of Alaska's Seward Peninsula. "All air surveys of this part of Arakamčečen show there's nothing but mountains and valleys here. All ground surveys said the same thing. But there's an inlet here, as clear as day to us! Why?"

"Because we're both _Kosmičeskie Angely_?" Maria Pávlovna Gógol'a then asked.

Hearing that, Ekaterina Vasílijovna Lébed'a blinked before she laughed. "True, Maša, true!" she said before tapping controls on the dataPADD affixed to her navigation console. As the fishing boat slowed to a hover about two hundred metres off shore, she then picked up a pair of binoculars to look herself. "Damn! This whole area of Siberia is constantly being swarmed by eco-tourists . . . and NO ONE has looked into this place before?" she demanded. "Do people avoid this part of the island . . .?"

"Wait!"

"What?"

"Earthquake!" Maria said as she pointed.

Ekaterina blinked, and then she looked herself. "Damn! A big one, too!" she hissed out on seeing the glaciers framing the inlet shake violently. "Where . . .?"

"Can't tell," Maria said as she lowered her binoculars . . .

. . . and then gaped as the hundred metre-tall wall of ice blocking off the inlet entrance quivered for a moment before it collapsed in a torrent of shattered crystals into the churning waters of the Bering Sea. "_Diša Laina!_ That's going to be a mess!" she hissed out as the collapsing wall disappeared into the waters south of it.

"Wait! What in Lyna's name is THAT?"

Maria jolted on hearing Ekaterina's shocked cry, and then she looked . . .

. . . before her jaw dropped. "Oh, my . . . "

"It's a ship!" Ekaterina breathed out.

"An aircraft carrier!" Maria exclaimed.

The fishing boat's helmsman blinked, and then she looked again. "Oh, my . . . " she breathed out on noting the large and flat deck hovering two levels above the dark grey bow, that tipped at the bowsprit with a circular golden sigil. As her eyes also picked up row on row of triple-barrelled anti-aircraft guns lining the edge of the flight deck, she then blinked on seeing something fluttering over the deck. "Flag!"

Maria blinked, and then she scanned the area where her friend was pointing . . .

. . . and then her jaw dropped. "The _Japanese_ flag . . .?"

Ekaterina gaped. "Are you sure?"

"_Da_! Red disc on a white field! And the bow end of the ship is where they fly that flag as a naval jack! Can you turn us around and get us closer so I can see more of this thing? If this is a real aircraft carrier from Japan . . .!"

"What's it doing up HERE?" the other woman said.

Maria nodded. "Not to mention still intact without a speck of rust on it!"

The helmsman sighed. "Okay, okay . . . "

With that, she tapped controls to get the engine moving again. As the fishing boat swung around and began a slow approach of the inlet in question, Maria walked over to the bow and leaned on the guard rail there as she put the binoculars back to her eyes so she could get a closer look at this quite strange sight for the easternmost tip of Russia. A _Japanese_ aircraft carrier – yes, the golden sigil on the bow was the sixteen-pedal chrysanthemum insignia that had adorned the bows of all major warships of that nation before the end of the Great Patriotic War in 1945 – that had been trapped in a cove in an isolated island off the coast of _Siberia_ of all places . . .!

For how long . . .?

Why were they here . . .?

And were there people still _alive_ on this ship . . .?"

"LIEUTENANT! FISHING BOAT APPROACHING!"

Maria jolted as she spotted several people appear on the flight deck near the edge, all dressed in matching green uniforms. _Well, that answers the last question_, she mused as people pointed her way. _What in Lyna's name are they doing here? Was this some sort of strange Gulag camp that the authorities in Moscow forgot . . .?_

"Maša, they don't seem to like our being here!" Ekaterina warned.

Maria blinked, and then she sighed. She had started sensing it, too. Waves of shock, surprise and anger, all mixed with a steely grip on people's souls that could only arise from years of military discipline. "Wonderful . . . " she hissed before blinking as she gazed over her shoulder at her friend. "Is the translator on?"

"It's on!" the other Avalonian-Russian replied. "Was that English?"

"I think so," Maria stated. "You have a bullhorn on this boat?"

"_Nyet_!" Ekaterina said, shaking her head. "You'll have to yell!"

"Oh, wonderful . . . " With that, Maria took a deep breath, and then she cupped both her hands around her lips. "_**HELLO, THERE!**_" she called out. "_**CAN YOU HEAR ME?**_"

Silence.

"YES!" came back from the flight deck of the carrier . . . which was a rather BIG carrier, Maria was noting as the fishing boat came closer. Big – if not BIGGER! – than most surface warships on Earth that she knew of. Most likely, this great ship was the near-equal of the American Nimitz-class supercarriers that formed the backbone of that nation's surface fleet. Did Japan ever possess a ship this size . . .?

"_**ARE YOU ALRIGHT? THAT QUAKE DIDN'T HURT ANYONE, DID THEY?**_"

More silence.

"NO! WE ARE FINE!"

Maria blinked as she sensed something new coming from the men – and there were a LOT of them! – aboard this strange ship. _Curiosity? Haven't they __ever encountered women piloting ships before? The Čukči people whale and herd reindeer all over the area; women help out in every step of the process! Why are these people . . .?_

"WHY ARE YOU HERE?"

Different man's voice, Maria noted. "_**WE CAME HERE BECAUSE MY FRIEND NOTICED THE INLET YOUR SHIP WAS TRAPPED IN!**_" she called back. "_**YOUR SHIP DIDN'T APPEAR IN AERIAL SCANS OF THE ISLAND, MUCH LESS WASN'T SEEN BY ALL THE TOURISTS THAT COME HERE!**_"

Still more silence.

"HOW ARE YOU SPEAKING JAPANESE?"

Maria sighed. "_**I HAVE A TRANSLATOR SYSTEM WITH ME THAT ALLOWS YOUR WORDS TO BE INTERPRETED IN RUSSIAN AND MY WORDS TO BE INTERPRETED BACK IN JAPANESE! IT'S AN AREA EFFECT!**_" she called back as she sensed Ekaterina gear back the boat's motors just in case the people on this strange ship got a little trigger-happy. While neither of them knew much about the history of Russian-Japanese relations even after living over a year in the _Rodina_, the fact that there was a JAPANESE AIRCRAFT CARRIER trapped in a bay on a RUSSIAN ISLAND in SIBERIA was well beyond what could be seen as normal. "_**PLEASE! WE MEAN YOU NO HARM! YOU'VE OBVIOUSLY BEEN HERE FOR A WHILE! LET US HELP YOU!**_"

Silence fell again, though Maria was quick to hear both the muttering of people close to the bow and the sounds of thumping feet on hard steel decks echoed from inside this great ship. Finally – as the fishing boat got within ten metres of the great ship's bow – a man appearing to be in his early sixties came up to stand at the forward edge of the flight deck. Gazing at him, Maria was instantly struck by both the wisdom and determination that seemed to leech out from every point on this man's body. His uniform – like all of the others on this ship she had seen so far, he was dressed in a green coverall-like suit that distantly resembled work dress aboard civilian and military ships alike these days – fit his trim and slender body like a glove. While she had no idea what the rank insignia on his collars meant, the sheathed sword latched to his work belt clearly indicated he was a high-ranked officer of some sort.

"You cannot help us, Madame!" the newcomer then said – _In English?_ Maria gasped to herself, her eyes picking up the slightly different movement of the man's lips – as he gazed sadly on them; his voice was echoing well all over the ice-lined inlet that had shielded his ship from the outside world so well. "We are on a mission forced upon us by the authority of our late Emperor seventy years ago that demands we go forth and strike down anyone who stands in our path before we can achieve our goal! I'm sad to say that you and your friend there will have to be taken prisoner for the time being; we cannot afford to allow you to relay news of our ship's existence to the outside world, especially those our late Emperor marked as enemies of our homeland!"

Maria took a moment to absorb that. _Seventy years ago? Nineteen-forty-one? What in Lyna's name would make these people come out HERE to . . .?_ She then paled as she recalled a certain event in that year which would definitely have involved Japanese aircraft carriers, especially something the size of the ship before her. _Oh, Lyna have mercy! These people were supposed to be part of the force that attacked _Pearl Harbour_!_

"Maša, what do you want to do?" Ekaterina hissed out.

A sigh. "We have no choice, Katja," Maria said as she gazed back on her friend before she looked up at the elderly officer on the flight deck. Much that she was personally prepared to die performing her duty, the senior sergeant of the _Policia_ knew that _**this**_ situation was worlds different than tracking down common criminals, much less doing other things to keep the order and peace within her patrol zone. "You have orders that were given to you which cannot be countermanded as those who gave you those orders are all resting in That Place beyond this life, _Továrišč_!" she called up. Noting the surprise emanating from many of the people on the carrier listening in on this by her calling him "comrade," she added, "Much that I personally cannot understand such life-long devotion to following orders that effectively initiated the Pacific side of the Great Patriotic War in earnest, I can sense that such was the way you were trained! I doubt that neither my friend nor I can say anything that will persuade all of you to consider otherwise, since it is quite easy to determine where you're going!"

Silence fell as the older man considered that, and then he smiled, a knowing look flashing in his eyes. "You're a soldier, aren't you? And your friend as well?"

"I'm a senior sergeant of the Providénskij District Police; the _Milíciya_ as you might know it," Maria called back, pointing to the epaulettes of her work jacket, which had the broad gold stripe of her rank. "My comrade here is a sergeant assigned to the ocean patrol group of that same force." She waved to Ekaterina – she had on the three thinner bars of her rank insignia on her jacket – before gazing back up at him.

"You both should be at home with your families!" another man – the second fellow that had called out to them, Maria was quick to recognise – stated as a young and handsome man came up to stand beside the elderly fellow she now knew was the commander of this ship. "Why are you serving in the police? Is Russia at war?"

"Thankfully, no," Maria called back; by then, the fishing boat had drifted to a stop five metres off the carrier's bow. "But if you've been trapped in this Eternity-forsaken place for seventy years, you're coming back into a world that will be VERY alien to you." She gave them an apologetic smile. "And for that, I am truly sorry."

Silence fell over the scene . . .

* * *

_**The Angels of the Era of Eternity**_  
by Fred Herriot

Based on _Urusei Yatsura_ and ___Ranma __½_, created by Takahashi Rumiko; _Ikkitōsen_, created by Shiozaki Yūji; and the _Seventh Carrier_ series, created by Peter Albano.

Including characters and situations from _Sanctuary_, written by Fumimura Shō and Ikegami Ryōichi; the Jack Ryan novels, created by Tom Clancy; _Kōtetsu Tenshi Kurumi_, created by Kaishaku (Ōta Hitoshi and Shichinohe Terumasa); _6teen_, created by Jennifer Pertsch and Tom McGillis and produced by Fresh TV and Nelvana;

This is a sequel to _Long Way Home_, _Phoenix From the Ashes_ and _Avalonians and Questors_. This story also contains characters and situations from the fanfic series _Urusei Yatsura - The Senior Year_, created by Mike Smith and Fred Herriot.

* * *

_**WRITER'S INTRODUCTION:**__ And so comes another sequel to _Avalonians and Questors_, which will give me the chance allow the world I created for that story and its predecessors to come together with the world of _The Seventh Carrier_, a series of alternate history action-adventure stories written by the late Peter Albano (1922-2006) during the 1980s and 1990s. If you've never heard of this series, don't be surprised; the books were pretty much your average action adventure dime store novels. Even more so, the plot itself – the _Yonaga_, a World War Two-era carrier from Imperial Japan that was prevented from participating in the attack on Pearl Harbour, effectively becomes the supreme weapons system in the 1980s thanks to a malfunctioning Star Wars-like defence system; also, thanks to the total breakdown of the normal Cold War-era world political and military structure, Islamic fundamentalists start to have a field day, dragging the _Yonaga_ and its crew along for the ride – has enough holes in it to drive a tank though at times._

_However, Mr. Albano's novels _**did**_ had a considerable impact on a very impressionable young fan fiction writer when they came out (I began writing fan fiction stories for distribution to others when I began attending university after my time in the Canadian Forces, with the first version of _The Senior Year_, which I co-wrote with my friend Mike Smith, coming out in 1996 on the Internet); some of the early versions of that series do bear marks of influence from the stories around _Yonaga_ and her crew. And despite the sometimes stilted dialogue, the biased depiction of Japanese people and their society, the quite gory battle scenes (and yes, the intimate scenes, too; these books had _**that**_ as well) and the seriously off-kilter behaviour of _Yonaga_'s old crew (which seems more reminiscent of the Imperial Army of that era and not the Imperial Navy) during this time, the series still does hold a place in my heart, though it is now tempered with growing wisdom and knowledge that, had it been applied in the series then, would have probably made those books a lot more memorable to future generations._

_This story itself was directly inspired a bit by JJ Rust's _Airwolf_ crossover story _Return of the Rising Sun_, which is archived in my favourites list at this website._

_Note that, like _Long Way Home_, author's notes are contained at the end of each part._

* * *

Hiroshima, Saeki Ward, Friday 24 June 2011, late afternoon . . .

"Hiijii-chan . . . "

"Hinano-chan? Are you okay . . .?"

A surprised gasp escaped the lovely girl with the stylish brown hair and the steel grey eyes before she turned to stare in confusion at her best friend. "Did you say something, Aiko-chan?" Masatada Hinano asked before she sipped her tea.

Makimura Aiko blinked before she chuckled. "You felt something, didn't you?"

A nod. "Hai . . . Hiijii-chan seems sad for some reason . . . "

Aiko breathed out. Sharing the grey eyes of her third cousin – Aiko's paternal great-grandfather Masaharu was the older brother of Hinano's maternal great-grandmother Fujita (_née_ Makimura) Seiko – she had short-cut black hair dyed a dark Indian red. Both were currently second-year students at Hiroshima University: Hinano was studying to be a lawyer while Aiko was pursuing a degree in medicine. They were also two of the leaders of a local motorcycle club, the Yonaga no Tenshi. The name they had chosen for their organisation – which they had formed originally as a girl's gang club while both were attending Suzugamine Girl's High School four years before – meant much more than just the poetic translation of the word _yonaga_ to mean "era of forever."

Unfortunately for them – not to mention the other members of the Tenshi – all information concerning a ship named _Yonaga_ had been almost lost to history.

_Almost_ lost, of course.

Certain people – whose descendants also formed part of the Tenshi – had, despite all attempts at keeping the commissioning of the then-largest aircraft carrier totally secret from the outside world, been able to save the ship's plans and the few pictures ever taken of _Yonaga_ as she was assembled in top secrecy at the Maizuru Naval Arsenal in the city of the same name on the Kyōto-fu coast of the East Sea.

Of course, given WHAT _Yonaga_ had been made administratively a part of back in 1941 to ensure her existence was kept as secret as possible . . .!

"Hinano! Aiko!"

Both women jolted, and then they turned to look as a grinning woman with long brown-dyed black hair and blue eyes came up to them. "Riko-chan!" Hinano gasped. "What is it?" she asked as Sasagawa Riko moved to sit down beside them; all three of them were currently enjoying the local version of okonomiyaki at Hassei, a quaint little family shop off the Heiwa-Ōdōri that ran across the centre of town.

"Irasshaimase!" the owner of the shop called out.

"Udon-yaki, please!" Riko called out.

"Hai!"

She sat down beside her fellow Tenshi. Atop being a co-founder of the club, Riko was Hinano's second cousin related through the former's grandfather Jun'ichi, whose older sister Natsuko had married Hinano's maternal grandfather Fujita Tennosuke. "Got some news from friends up in space," she said as her blue eyes twinkled before she drew out a dataPADD from under her jacket flap to show her cousins. "Read."

Hinano took the device and flicked it on. She then blinked as the words written there literally leapt out of the screen to snare her heart. "A _carrier_ . . .?"

"Hai! Even if all the bleeding hearts in the Diet are screaming bloody murder at the idea of us actually acquiring such an 'evil' device like that!" Riko then rolled her eyes. "People didn't complain when the _Yamato_ was commissioned!"

"Brand recognition," Aiko stated as she took the PADD from Hinano. "NO ONE in this country would dare speak out against a ship named _Yamato_, even if she is a space battleship!" She then hummed. "Pity they never made a television series called _Uchū Kōkūbokan Yonaga_!" she then quipped as she gave her cousins a knowing look.

Hinano and Riko nodded. "Was there a name given yet?" the former asked.

"No," the latter responded. "The government is going to let Hiromi-san and her friends decide on the name for that ship. Just like they've done for practically every ship in the Earth Defence Force that's been commissioned or ordered to date."

"Doesn't say any sort of time period when this could be done," Aiko mused as she scanned the article being displayed on the PADD. "Hey, wait a minute . . . "

"What?" Hinano asked.

"Why don't we go to Tomobiki and talk to her about this?"

Silence.

"I doubt even the Moroboshi Clan know about _Yonaga_, Aiko-chan!" Hinano warned.

"Never hurts to ask," Aiko mused as she gazed knowingly at her cousins. "'Sides, you've heard all the tales about Negako-sama, haven't you?"

Hinano and Riko both blinked . . .

* * *

Tōkyō, Chiyoda Ward, the National Diet Building, that moment . . .

"This is a total OUTRAGE!"

The small collection of dietmen seated in the office of the chairman of the Japanese Communist Party didn't blink as they gazed on the ranting man. "What is so outrageous when it comes to contributing to the Earth Defence Force?" Asami Chiaki then demanded, an amused smile crossing his face. "You never objected when _Yamato_ was commissioned last summer, Mister Chairman. Why the objection now?"

"Because an _aircraft carrier_ is worlds different from other ships being designed now for the Earth Defence Force, Asami-san!" the chairman snapped as he tried not to glare at the upstart independent representing Metro Tōkyō's District Four. He knew – as did many others in the Diet – that this young survivor of the Rwandan genocide seventeen years ago was made of much sterner stuff. "It is a direct and flagrant violation of Article Nine of the Constitution! It's bad enough that the Maritime Self-Defence Forces commissioned the Hyūga-class ships when any one with even the _**barest**_ knowledge of military matters could tell right away they were helicopter _carriers_ and not _destroyers_!" He then sighed. "At least the planners were willing to come out and say what the Type Four ships were actually going to be! That makes this easier!"

"Why didn't you object to _Yamato_ then?" Chiaki demanded, clearly unbothered by the older man's bluster. "_Yamato_ is a combination of battleship and aircraft carrier and was designed that way right from the start. It's in the very hull classification code allocated to the Type Ones these days: SBBV. Space Battleship-Carrier."

"It's quite easy why, Asami-kun," Sengoku Shin'ichirō, the freshman from Hokkaidō's District Eight, stated, a lanky smirk crossing his face. As the elderly man shuddered at his mocking tone, the son of one of the Liberal Democratic Party's late senior statesmen added, "He watched _Uchū__ Senkan Yamato_ when he was a kid!" As their elderly host gasped in outrage at what Shin'ichirō was implying, he added, "When Hiromi-san, Tsukihana-kun and Ayami-chan named those ships and he heard '_Yamato_' for the ship given to Japan, he fell in with the rest of us! Swept away by a dream!"

"Besides, what's so offensive about an aircraft carrier?" the third of Chiaki's personal group of freshmen, the diminutive Yoshimaru Hidekawa from Kōchi Prefecture's District One, asked. "A carrier – as the Americans have shown time and time again – is as much a _defensive_ weapon as it is an _offensive_ weapon. It all depends on use and intention. Atop that, we're moving to help settle a colony planet with the Koreans, the Taiwanese and the Mongolians. Our slice of Pacifica is the equivalent size of all of _**Eurasia**_! We're looking at the possible migration of thousands if not MILLIONS of people from Japan to Pacifica! If we don't ensure the protection of those colonists 1and some pirate – or worse, some warmonger from any of the neighbouring powers – decides to try to attack them, would _Yamato_ and _K__ō__tetsu_ be enough to protect them?"

"Give the carrier to the Koreans, then!" the Communist Party's vice-chair then snapped. "They've got the pilots and personnel to man such a thing!"

"It was a trade-off at the United Nations," Chiaki stated. "We got the carrier. Both Koreas got missile cruisers." A sigh. "Mister Chairman, I applaud your party's desire to maintain and promote peace and harmony within and beyond Japan. Your people stood up – even at the risk of being called traitors to the nation – back before and during the Greater East Asia War to protest our attacks on China and elsewhere. You knew all along what such a war would unleash on us all. If the peaceful world you and your friends envision actually did appear, it would be a truly wonderful thing for all to experience." Another sigh. "But sadly, we don't live in such a world. We don't live in such a GALAXY, either. To blind ourselves to the dangers out there is a very stupid thing to do. The people are dependent on us to make the right choices for them and their future. Like it or not, the Japanese Self-Defence Forces are going into space alongside their counterparts elsewhere. Japan _does_ have a tradition of maritime air operations, dating all the way back to when aircraft carrier technology was in its infancy. It's not a question of governmental semantics. It's a question of NEED! And not only do WE have a need for such a ship! But our neighbours do as well!"

"Doesn't your party promote EQUAL and JUST cooperation between the nations?" Hidekawa added. "That means we have to SHARE the burdens of the defence of our people – both Terran and Avalonian – equally! The Americans, the Chinese, the Koreans, the Canadians and everyone else with forces in the North Pacific Division of the EDF expect no less from us. I, for one, will not face our counterparts in Washington, in Běijīng, in Sŏul and P'yŏng'yang, in Ottawa and elsewhere and be forced to say that Japan is NOT doing its EQUAL PART to help guarantee the future of humanity." He then sighed. "You really should think about it, Mister Chairman. And consult with your constituents. Didn't nearly a THIRD of the Avalonian-Japanese living in this country vote for your party in the upper house elections last year? Isn't that betraying THEM?"

"I would believe so," Chiaki stated as he stood. "Please excuse us."

With polite bows, the three freshmen walked out of the office, heading down the hallway towards the private office reserved for the representative from Tōkyō's Ōta Ward. "Stupid idiots!" Shin'ichirō hissed as they passed several representatives, who all shied away from "Asami's Tigers" (as all three of them were known as a group) as if they were infested with the plague. "We literally get all the resources of a PLANET handed to us on a virtual silver platter . . . and what do they do?" A snort.

"Principle is one thing. Reality is another," Chiaki mused as he turned to head into his office, and then he perked on noting a smiling woman seated in the guest chair by his desk. "Eh?" he gasped before noting that she also had a dietman's badge on the lapel of her jacket. "I don't believe we've been introduced . . . "

She smiled. "Wakana Ako, Asami-kun," she said as she stood up, bowing politely to him. "Representative for the Fourth District of Kyōto. I hope I'm not intruding."

"Of course not," Chiaki stated with a polite bow in return, and then he beckoned the newcomer back into her seat. As his friends also took their chairs off to one side of the small office, he relaxed behind his desk, gazing intently at her. "You were first elected in the 2005 lower house elections. You're _Jiyū-Minshutō_ like Sengoku-kun here, but not part of any particular faction. Why are you here, then?"

A smirk. "Like you, Asami-kun, I had a dream when I first came to this building as the representative for the people of Kyōto," Ako stated. "We are an economic superpower . . . yet for the last thirty years and more, we've done nothing but sit on our laurels while other countries – South Korea, China, Taiwan and others – work hard to get to where we are at and are trying to surpass us. That doesn't sit well with me as I know it doesn't sit well with you." She sat back in her chair. "I know what your ultimate goal is, Asami-kun. To create a nation of people who intrinsically understand the need to SACRIFICE for the greater good of all . . . AND allow individuals to excel at whatever interests them. Fine and fair enough. I can agree to that."

"So what do you support?" he wondered.

"Initially, a slight modification to the article of the Constitution that has our friends in the Communist Party down the hall so up in arms now about our new space carrier," she answered. "But not to the degree that the militarists in this country would wish to go. I propose that while Japan still renounces the idea of _offensive_ war – in other words, to conquer other peoples or to take control of territories which are claimed by other peoples by military force – that we respect the right of all nations to self-defence and to come to the aid of others who can't defend themselves."

A nod. "Logical."

"But it needs help to get onto the floor," she stated. "And I believe that help is fast approaching this nation. Not from the stars . . . but from the sea itself."

Silence.

"What do you mean?"

Ako smiled. "Have you ever heard of the Yonaga no Tenshi?"

All three men blinked. "I have," Hidekawa then stated. "It's a motorcycle gang. About 850 members all across Chūgoku, Shikoku and Kansai. The local equivalent to the Kōshi Kasshi here in Kantō, but they're not tōshi. Or any other type of 'resurrected warrior' as the magicals in our country call them." As all four dietmen chuckled – being in the positions they were in government, they had the right to know about all the magically-gifted of those who lived amongst their constituents – he added, "Leader is a girl in Hiroshima named Masatada Hinano. Second-year university student at Hiroshima Daigaku; she founded the group back while she was in high school with her cousins Makimura Aiko and Sasagawa Riko. While sometimes thought of as 'bōsōzoku,' they're as well-behaved as the Kōshi Kasshi, with the same type of reputation among the less-fortunate. At least a hundred people throughout southern Honshū are alive today thanks to them helping out when it comes to automobile accidents and the like."

"Where does the name come from?" Chiaki then asked.

"_Yonaga_ is written with the kanji for 'era' and 'forever.' Or 'eternity' if you wish to get poetic about it," Ako explained as she gazed on her host. "It was also the name of a ship that should have been commissioned into the Imperial Navy before the Greater East Asia War expanded to include the Europeans and the Americans in 1941."

The three men present blinked. "Never heard of her," Shin'ichirō stated.

"You wouldn't have," Ako stated. "She was built with a level of secrecy that even made what was used to shield _Yamato_, _Musashi_ and _Shinano_ look plain in comparison. Then again, it should have been expected. _Yonaga_ originally was a Yamato-class ship."

Silence.

"What . . .?" Hidekawa breathed out. "That's impossible!"

"Maybe not, Yoshimaru-kun," Chiaki stated. "Though I have to confess, it does sound pretty farfetched given what everyone's said about those ships, especially the ones that were ultimately launched. Where was _Yonaga_ built, Wakana-san?"

"Maizuru. She was the first big project after the yard was reactivated in 1936. She was launched from the Number Three dock . . . after it was expanded to take a ship her size. And she was much larger than her sisterships. A design modification that was necessitated by what her envisioned mission could have been." Ako smirked. "To strike totally by surprise and hit with overwhelming force on any chosen target."

Her host nodded. "Understandable. And it would explain the odd name for her."

"What do you mean, Asami?" Shin'ichirō asked.

"Japanese battleships were named after the old Imperial provinces," Hidekawa answered. "Cruisers were named after mountains. Aircraft carriers – if they weren't converted from other classes of ship – were named after flying creatures. _Yonaga_ was named after an interesting poetic concept. Doesn't match any potential ship type."

"A good bluff," Chiaki mused. "What else did they do with this ship?"

"They actually made her a part of Unit 731."

More silence.

"That would do it," Shin'ichirō breathed out; who DIDN'T know of that particular special unit of the Kantō Army that operated in China between 1935 and 1945?

"What proof is there?" Chiaki asked.

"The assignment of 140 _naval_ pilots to Unit 731 in 1940."

Still more silence.

"This ship carried THAT many pilots?" Hidekawa gasped.

A nod. "Hai. And the full support facilities to make sure they could launch a mission without any major fleet support. She was a lone wolf on the oceans."

"Part of Operation Z, you mean?" Chiaki asked. "The Pearl Harbour attack."

Ako smiled. "Eventually. After _Yonaga_ was declared in service – she was actually 'commissioned' on 11 November 1940, over a year before _Yamato_ was – she was deployed to Kitsuki Bay in Kyūshū until she was ordered somewhere else to await the deployment of the remainder of Nagumo's force to Hawai'i." A sigh. "But that is where the actual order trail ends. Since she was an adjunct to Unit 731, operational orders were kept with them . . . and totally destroyed when the members of the unit moved to clean their bases in China when the Soviets attacked in 1945. All that was saved were the full set of ship's blueprints, some pictures and a crew roster; all by relatives of the crew or dockyard staff who managed to get them clear of Imperial authorities when the destruction of documents concerning Yamato-class ships were ordered before the Shōwa Emperor issued the Imperial Rescript ending the war."

The three men in the room nodded. "So why tell us all this?" Hidekawa then asked. "It's an interesting historical tale, but . . . " He then paused. "Wait . . .!" he breathed out. "If such a ship actually existed, then what happened to her? If she was sunk, there would be a record of it somewhere, even in Russia!"

"There is a theory. My chief administrative assistant is a member of the Tenshi: Ushimatsu Kurumi," the dietman from Kyōto explained. "Her maternal first cousin three times removed was a Lieutenant Commander Matsuhara Yoshi. A multiple ace in the war in China before he was re-assigned to Unit 731 to become part of _Yonaga_'s crew. He was a dōhō from Los Angeles who returned to fight for the homeland against the Chinese." As the others in the room nodded, she added, "Back last April, there was a fire in an apartment complex in Hiroshima where dozens of Avalonians had gone to live after they came here to Earth. A small group of Tenshi – Kurumi-san included – were involved in getting the place evacuated. No one died, fortunately." A sigh. "As a result, the local _ashi'cha_ elected to help allow _**all**_ the Tenshi become Avalonians themselves." As the three men in the room grinned in understanding – having Avalonian administrative aides came in quite handy when dealing with potential political opponents – Ako added, "After that, those of the Tenshi who are directly blood-related to the missing members of _Yonaga_'s crew started having dreams of them."

The three men blinked. "What sort of dreams?" Chiaki asked.

"Very vivid ones, Asami-kun," Ako answered. "Far too vivid to be products of one's imagination; Kurumi-san has allowed me to actually 'see' her memories of them. Have you experienced something like that?" At his nod, she added, "And those dreams showed that wherever she is, _Yonaga_ is afloat, fully manned with a living crew, all in good physical shape . . . and they are fully ready to carry out their mission."

"That's impossible!" Shin'ichirō snapped.

"Not so impossible, Sengoku-kun," Chiaki then stated. "Remember the case of Onoda Hiroo-shōi. He was the holdout soldier who survived for thirty years on Lubang Island in the Philippines virtually alone until he was finally contacted by his former commanding officer and told to stand down once and for all. There were other holdouts hidden all over the Pacific. Some made it home, some didn't. And being isolated like that, it IS potentially possible for such people to literally defy time. When he came out of the jungle in the 1970s, Onoda-shōi barely looked older than he did when he was assigned there in the 1940s." A nod. "Yes, it is possible, even to this late date . . . " He then perked as a knock echoed from the door. "Come in!" he called out.

The door opened to reveal a pretty girl in her early twenties with brown-shaded black hair and dark brown eyes. She was dressed in a proper business suit with the insignia of a dietman's administrative assistant on her jacket collar. "Excuse me for bothering you, Asami-san," she said with a polite bow to him before she gazed on Ako. "Ako-san, the girls are coming to Tomobiki today. They'll be there by nightfall."

Ako blinked. "Why?"

The newcomer – who Chiaki and his friends were quick to sense was one Ushimatsu Kurumi – took a deep breath. "Hinano-chan had a dream of her great-great-grandfather being sad about something . . . but at the same time, many of the others sensed a lot of happiness from all of the crew of _Yonaga_," she said. "They're free, Ako-san."

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

And then . . .

"Oh, dear gods . . .!" Ako breathed out.

"Kurumi-san, you're saying that an aircraft carrier from World War Two – one of OUR carriers – has broken free of whatever place it had been trapped in . . . and is now possibly heading towards Hawai'i at this time?" Chiaki demanded.

A nod. "Hai, Asami-san."

"What the hell do we do?" Shin'ichirō demanded.

The survivor of the Rwandan genocide smiled. "We turn this over to the one person in all of Japan who could potentially stop this," he said.

The others gazed on him, and then they nodded . . .

* * *

Heading south from Arakamčečen Island, early evening . . .

"We didn't have any darkness to protect us from being seen when we left Arakamčečen, Admiral. We may have been spotted."

Standing on the navigation bridge of His Imperial Majesty's Ship _Yonaga_, Vice-Admiral Fujita Hiroshi took a deep breath. The sun was finally setting over the low mountains of the shoreline bordering the Anadyrskij Zaliv three hundred kilometres to their west. "I'm aware of that, Captain Ogawa. It was a risk worth taking when the ship was able to move finally," he answered in English, speaking with the slight American accent he had gained from his period of study at the University of Southern California between 1919 and 1921. He took a moment to scan the calm seas surrounding his flagship through his binoculars. "We have a duty to perform and we must perform it, even now. _Especially_ now."

Hearing that, _Yonaga_'s commanding officer, Captain Ogawa Gorō, nodded. "Hai. To believe we finally managed to break free after nearly SEVENTY YEARS . . . "

"And we've only physically aged nearly SIX YEARS," Fujita noted with an amused smirk.

Both men laughed, as did the seamen on lookout watch nearby, not to mention the radioman by the speaker-tubes connecting the open deck with the pilotage platform many decks below. Taking a deep breath, the native of Sendai then scanned the seas around his ship. "How is it possible, Admiral? We were isolated, of course, but . . . "

A shake of the head. "I can't say, Gorō-san." The admiral tried not to grin too much at his flag captain's asking that question; the fact that their bodies' aging process had noticeably slowed down – even for the elderly members of the crew – had always been a conversation starter aboard _Yonaga_, where topics of conversation had been in rather short supply given their effective total isolation from the outside world. "None of the doctors – not even Eiichi-san – have been able to determine the cause," Fujita noted. He then smirked. "But it doesn't matter anyway. The ship's crew – especially the pilots – need to be young and spry, especially with all the potential threats we must face."

A nod. "Hai, true." He sighed. "What of the two Russian police officers?"

"They will be treated well," the admiral stated. "Maria-san and Ekaterina-san came aboard willingly when we told them what had to happen. I had Masao-san take charge of them. They're being held in senior enlisted quarters, under watch." He sighed. "They reminded me too much of Hinano-chan and her friends," he added.

Ogawa nodded. He also had a relative among the Yonaga no Tenshi, a great-great-grandniece named Masanaga Nanoka, who worked as a clerk at the Junkudō Fukuoka bookshop in the city of the same name. Much that he was inwardly scared of how different people in Japan were these days – as were other members of the ship's company who had dreamt of still-living relatives . . . and all GIRLS at that! – he was glad that there were parts of his family still alive and well. And hoping that he would finally come home. "Pity we had to sink that fishing boat of theirs," he mused. "It was a sturdy ship."

"Hai, but necessary. As far as their superiors will be concerned, they're lost at sea. Understandable in this part of the world, even with the change of weather patterns in the last few years." Fujita pointed to the southwest. "Once we fully clear Cape Čaplino, we'll steer west-southwest to put as much distance between us and Northwest Cape on Saint Lawrence Island as possible without risking any detection from the Russians. Even if the American air force station on that island was said to have closed down in 1969, the chances are there that they may have reserve forces based on the island. At least, _**I**_ would consider having such units based there, especially with the closeness of Russian territory to my own territory. We won't launch our first aircraft patrol until first light tomorrow, sending reconnaissance flights towards Saint Matthew and Hall Islands. There were American Coast Guard units based there during the war. They might still be there, Gorō-san."

"Hai!"

Ogawa headed off to relay the orders to personnel in the ship's operations room to prepare the necessary course changes to ensure the carrier would make the first leg of her destined journey to Hawai'i – from Sano Bay on Arakamčečen Island to past the Aleutian Islands chain between Attu and Médnyj Islands nearly 1300 kilometres to the southwest in twenty-six hours at the ship's present speed of 50 kilometres per hour – without being spotted by Russian or American ships and/or reconnaissance aircraft. Now left alone save for the junior seamen behind him, Fujita took a deep breath.

_Seventy damned years . . .!_ the native of Nagoya and later adopted native of Hiroshima mused as he scanned the beautiful ocean before him. Fortunately for the crew of _Yonaga_, the seas were quite calm today; the Bering Sea was known for its incredibly rough weather and the vast majority of the crew hadn't been on the open ocean since 1941. Still, they would survive the voyage to Hawai'i; the on-board medical team had long developed homeopathic cures for seasickness thanks to the intensive research many of the crew's amateur biologists and zoologists had done on local plant and sea life.

They would make it.

They WOULD climb Niitaka-yama!

They WOULD complete the mission assigned to them in Operation Z!

And they WOULD return back home in triumph . . .

. . . or never return at all.

And the people back home . . .

Fujita shuddered as the image of a pretty girl flashed past his mind's eye.

_Hinano-chan . . ._

His great-great-granddaughter, Masatada Hinano.

_Hiijii-chan, when are you coming home . . .?_

Another shudder ran through him as he remembered that teary plea . . .

_Hinano-chan doesn't understand . . ._

A deep breath later, he relaxed himself.

_What's happened back home all this time?_

Of course, _Yonaga_'s crew had monitored signals coming from Japan and elsewhere over both shortwave and AM frequencies since she was trapped by a freak earthquake that collapsed a massive glacier right over the entrance of Sano Bay one late September day in 1941. Even if many of the signals were simply _impossible_ to believe . . .

_After pondering deeply the general trends of the world and the actual conditions obtaining in Our Empire today, We have decided to effect a settlement of the present situation by resorting to an extraordinary measure . . . We have ordered Our Government to communicate to the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, China and the Soviet Union that Our Empire accepts the provisions of their Joint Declaration . . ._

It was impossible!

It was simply IMPOSSIBLE!

Japan – the Son of Heaven – would _NEVER SURRENDER!_

_**NEVER!**_

So the duty was clear.

The duty demanded of all samurai sworn to serve their Emperor and nation . . .

_We will climb Niitaka-yama . . . or we will never return home!_

_**To be continued . . .**_

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES:**

1) The original book of Mr. Albano's series, _The Seventh Carrier_ (ISBN 0-8217-2056-2, published in 1983), was inspired by many stories of Japanese soldiers and sailors who, cut off from their support bases, refused to believe the transmission of the Shōwa Emperor's rescript for surrender on 14 August 1945 and continued to fight on. The most famous of those people – and one of the last to finally come in out of the wilderness – was Imperial Army Second Lieutenant **Onoda Hiroo** (born in 1922), who continued to fight a nearly-lonely war in the mountains of the Philippine island of Lubang until 1974, when he was convinced to surrender by his former commanding officer (thanks to the efforts of a Japanese college dropout, Suzuki Norio). These days, Onoda splits his time between Japan and Brazil.

2) The **Čukótskij Peninsula** is the Scientific Romanisation of what is better known as the _Chukchi Peninsula_, located on the very eastern tip of Siberia, across the Bering Strait from Alaska. According to _The Seventh Carrier_, the _Yonaga_ was caught in a glacial bay on the south coast of that peninsula, facing into the Bering Sea. Please note, that when Russian words and names are Romanised, I use the Scientific system; when there is a caron over a "z," "c" or "s," it indicates a "**zh**," "**ch**" or "**sh**" sound. **Arakamčečen Island** is a triangular island located off the eastern coast of the peninsula in the **Čukótskij Autonomous Okrug** (Čukótskij Autonomous Region) at the far eastern end of Siberia.

3) Russian translations: **Kosmičeskie Angely** – Cosmic Angels; **Diša Laina** – Lyna's Soul; **Da** – Yes; **Gulag** – acronym of the term "**_G_**_lávnoe _**_U_**_pravlénie Ispravítel'no-tridovýx _**_Lag_**_eréj i Kolónij_" ("Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies"); **Nyet** – No; **Čukči** – name of the indigenous natives of the Čukótskij Peninsula; **Rodina** – Motherland; **Policia** – Police; **Továrišč** – Comrade; **Milíciya** – Militia (name of the Russian police during the Soviet era); **Anadyrskij Zaliv** – Gulf of Anadyr (the arm of the Bering Sea south of the Čukótskij Peninsula to the west of Saint Lawrence Island).

4) Other translations: **Yonaga no Tenshi** – literally "Angels of the Era of Forever"; **-fu** – Name suffix for an urban prefecture (used only for Kyōto and Ōsaka Prefectures); **Ōdōri** – Great Street; **Udon-yaki** – Okonomiyaki made with udon wheat noodles; **Kōkūbokan** **– **Aircraft carrier (literally "aviation mothership"); **Jiyū-Minshutō** **– **Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, which effectively ruled Japan from 1955 until its first major defeat in the 2009 lower house elections; **Hiroshima Daigaku** – Hiroshima University; **Dōhō** **– **Compatriot; **Shōi** – Army second lieutenant, Navy acting sub-lieutenant/ensign, Air Force pilot officer (NATO rank code OF-1, U.S. Armed Forces pay grade O-1); **Niitaka-yama** – Literally "New High Mountain," the Japanese name for **Yùshān** (Jade Mountain), the highest mountain on Taiwan (which was a Japanese colony from 1895-1945).

5) The districts represented by Asami Chiaki and his friends are as follows: **Tōkyō District Four** incorporates the part of Ōta Ward that is not represented in **District Three** (which also includes Shinagawa Ward and the Izu Islands); **Hokkaidō District Eight** includes Hiyama and Oshima Sub-prefectures and the city of Hakodate; **Kōchi District One** encompasses most of the city of Kōchi in the prefecture of the same name on Shikoku; and **Kyōto District Four** includes the Kyōto city wards of Nishikyō and Ukyō, the city of Kameoka and the counties of Funai and Kitakuwada.

6) The **Japanese Starship **_**Kōtetsu**_ (hull classification code **SFF-119**) is named after the first ironclad warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Built originally for the Confederate States Navy in 1863 in France, the ship underwent five ownership changes (including a career as C.S.S. _Stonewall_ from 6 January-6 May 1865) until she was given over to the government of Japan in 1868. She was renamed _Azuma_ in 1871 and finally decommissioned in 1888.

7) The **Hyūga-class **helicopter carriers (officially classified as "helicopter destroyers" or DDH in the Maritime Self-Defence Forces) were first commissioned in 2009. Designed along the general lines of the British **Invincible-class** VTOL carriers (which were known originally as "through-deck cruisers" to avoid political opposition to the construction of such ships), the _Hyūga_ and her sistership _Ise_ (commissioned in 2011) are believed to be capable of launching V/STOL-type aircraft like the Lockheed-Martin F-35B Lightning II fighter, but currently only carries Mitsubishi SH-60K Seahawk anti-submarine helicopters.

8) The official English text of **Article Nine** of the **1947 Constitution of Japan** states as follows: _Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. To accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized._ Debates over Article Nine and its amendment or repeal have haunted Japanese politics since the founding of the Self-Defence Forces in 1954. The debate over Article Nine was a major theme throughout the _Seventh Carrier_ series and it also made an appearance in _Sanctuary_.

9) **Unit 731** (officially the "**Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kantō Army**") was Japan's top-secret biological- and chemical-warfare research unit that was active before and during World War Two. Operating from 1935-45 in northeast China, it was responsible for many of the war crimes committed during that conflict on the native population. However, given the considerable political and military necessities of the Cold War that began right afterward, those who were involved in Unit 731 were granted amnesties by the American occupying authorities after the surrender in 1945. In the background story of _The Seventh Carrier_, to ensure her existence would remain top secret from potential enemy intelligence forces, the _Yonaga_ was administratively commissioned as an element of Unit 731. The **Kantō Army** (known often by the Mandarin name **Guāndōng Army**) was the Imperial Japanese Army formation that was formed in 1905 to protect the **Guāndōng Leased Territory** (_Guāndōng_ meaning "east of Shānhǎi Guān," which was one of the major passes of the Great Wall of China in modern-day Qínhuángdǎo City of China's Héběi Province) on the southern part of the Liáodōng Peninsula where the city of **Lǚshùnkǒu** (known historically as **Port Arthur** to the West and **Ryojun** to the Japanese) was located. This was also the formation that **– **thanks very much to the influence of the **Kōdōha** ("Imperial Way Faction") group that advocated the overthrow of civilian government and the installation of a militarist regieme **– **provoked the **Liǔtiáohú Incident** (known more commonly as the "Mukden Incident") of 18 September 1931 which effectively instigated the invasion of Manchuria that year and (in one sense of the term) launched World War Two in earnest.

10) As historians will know, the code-phrase "**Climb Mount Niitaka**" (in Japanese, _Niitaka-yama nobore_) was the command to execute **Operation Z** (the attack on Pearl Harbour) on 7 December 1941 (8 December 1941 in Japan).

11) The quote at the end of the text comes from the **Gyokuon-hōsō** (literally, the "Jewel Voice Broadcast"), which was the radio broadcast on 15 August 1945 made by the **Shōwa Emperor** (1901-89) when he issued the **Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War** (in Japanese, _Daitōa-sensō Shūketsu-no-shōsho_) that officially ended World War Two in the Pacific Theatre. Given how they were trained before they became part of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the concept of their own head-of-state – which they also view as an **_arahitogami_** (a kami living as a human being) – doing something like _surrendering_ to the enemies of Japan was totally incomprehensible to people such as Onoda Hiroo . . . much less the crew of the _Yonaga_.


	2. Space Fighters and Tramp Steamers

Tomobiki, the Moroboshi home, late afternoon . . .

"I got it!" The front door of the main home then opened, revealing a wide-eyed young girl in a pretty pinafore dress. "Hai?" Moroboshi Yayoi then asked.

Standing before her were a small group of young people standing on the front walkway. All dressed quite nicely though not in flashy or trendy clothes, they bore banners marking them as members of the Democratic Youth League of Japan, the youth wing of the country's native communist party. "Konnichi wa, Yayoi-chan," the leader of the group then said as he bowed politely to her, his companions doing the very same thing. "My name is Tange Kenzō. Hiromi-san is expecting us, I believe."

Yayoi nodded, and then she looked inside. "Papa!"

Footsteps then heralded the arrival of a young woman in jeans and a T-shirt. "Ah, Kenzō-san," Moroboshi Hiromi then said as she bowed politely to him. "I was advised that you and your friends would be coming by the house to visit. Shall we repair to the guest house? There's more room to sit down and relax."

"Hai!"

With that, Hiromi slipped on her outdoor shoes and then – after leaning down to kiss her daughter on the cheek, the sight of which made all the visitors grin in delight – she waved them onto the walkway that connected the main gate of the Moroboshi property to the guest house located to the south of the main home. "So you're here to ask me to do something to convince the government that acquiring an aircraft carrier of all things is not the best thing to do for our space fleet."

Kenzō flustered. "I forgot that you're genetically an Avalonian, Hiromi-san. Is it really that obvious?" he asked as they stepped into the guest house's genkan.

"Sadly so, but please don't be embarrassed by it," the reborn Xiàolíng Emperor of the Latter Hàn Dynasty of old China stated as she gazed in amusement at them as they moved to enter the living room. Awaiting them there was one of Hiromi's lovers, Izuku Mioko, who had a tea set and cups at the ready. Introductions were soon made, the tea was served, and then the reborn Língsī Empress took her place at her beloved's side. "Much that I do understand why your organisation – and your friends in the _Kyōsan-tō_ – are quite against the idea of commissioning _Yonaga_ into the Self-Defence Forces as she does technically skirt close to the edge when it comes to Article Nine of the Constitution, I would like to hear your personal reasons for asking me to persuade the Diet to literally 'hand the ship over' to another country to be used."

Kenzō cleared his throat. "Please forgive me for disagreeing strongly with you at the very start, Hiromi-san, but as far as I can see, the new carrier – _Yonaga_, you call her? – doesn't 'skirt close to the edge' when it comes to the Constitution. Her presence in the Self-Defence Forces is a clear VIOLATION of the Constitution. We all know how pro-military forces in the Diet simply love to use all sorts of interesting interpretations to allow such forces to continue to exist. This time, however, they have gone too far. We need to make our priorities clear in this matter."

"So what would you ultimately propose?" Hiromi asked.

"The complete withdrawal of all military-like forces from the Earth Defence Forces," another of the visiting League members, Toda Mosui, stated. "In other words, the decommissioning of the _Yamato_, the _K__ō__tetsu_ and the _Yonaga_. They should all be transferred to other nations. Canada, for example, could make use of _Yonaga_; she has a history of aircraft carrier use stemming from the Second World War. I'm sure _Yamato_ herself could be turned over to the North Koreans to give them the same capabilities as their brethren south of the DMZ in _Paekb__ŏ__m_. As for _K__ō__tetsu_, give her to the Chinese. The Americans have five frigates. The Chinese only have two. It's only fair."

A smirk. "The Americans, technically, have only two frigates, Mosui-san," Hiromi corrected. "The _Majuro_, the _Totolom_ and the _Ngerchelchuus_ – even if they're manned by American crews and are all commissioned ships in the United States Navy – technically represent the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau respectively in the Earth Defence Force thanks to the defence clauses in the Compact of Free Association America signed with those nations." She sighed. "So say we did as you propose. What then? Who protects Japanese interests on Pacifica when migration begins in earnest over the next decade? Are we going to be dependent on the Americans – who have no desire to claim land on that planet – to escort colonisation ships to Pacifica?"

The visitors all blinked. "But still . . . " Kenzō breathed out.

Hiromi sighed. "Kenzō-san, you people have held on to your dreams concerning a peaceful world without the need of standing armed forces for years. Your people have also espoused bringing the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and America to a final end, thus allowing Japan to stand on her own two feet in the face of all her neighbours. Those are both good dreams . . . but they don't take into account what's happened to us in the last two years alone." She smirked. "Remember the tsunami that struck the Pacific coast of Tōhoku back in March. While the surface ships of the Self-Defence Forces – yes, including the _Hy__ū__ga_ and the _Ise_ – were there to help with humanitarian efforts, it was the _Yamato_ which removed the damaged reactors from the Fukushima facilities and towed them into space to be destroyed in the Sun. If we didn't have the _Yamato_ available, who would have done that for us?"

The visitors all nodded. The television imagery of _Yamato_ tractoring the damaged reactor hulls and surrounding machinery from both Fukushima I and Fukushima II right out of the ground and into space had scored thousands of hits on YouTube within minutes of the videos being posted there. Of course, that action showed that the fifty Type One battleship-carriers were more than just deep space defensive platforms to keep nosy aliens away from Earth. In the wake of _Yamato_'s mission to Fukushima, her Ukrainian sistership _Dmitro I. Višnevéc'kij_ was ordered to remove the wrecked Number Four reactor from the Čornobil' site near the Belarusian border north of Kiїv . . . while at the same time, U.S.S. _Arizona_ was sent to Pennsylvania to take Unit Two away from the Three Mile Island site near Harrisburg for a "sun dump." That – atop advances promoted by Avalonian researchers when it came to the introduction of cheaper and safer nuclear "lukewarm" fusion reactor systems – had sparked a massive increase in the production of modern and safe power plants worldwide, thus negating a large source of greenhouse gasses thanks to the increasing shutdown of coal and other fossil fuel plants.

"True, you're right," one of the women in the visiting group, Osako Shikiko, then stated. "But couldn't _K__ō__tetsu_ have done something similar were she commissioned?"

"Shikiko-chan!" one of her friends, Ishida Mitoko, gasped.

A nod. "Hai, she could have were she available and not still having her equipment fitted out. What are you proposing, Shikiko-san?" Hiromi asked.

"Simple," Shikiko stated. "There are countries in the world who have outlawed military forces from their nation. Iceland, for example. Despite this, she received a Type Three space frigate which was commissioned into that nation's civil maritime patrol as the Icelandic Coast Guard Starship _Óðinn_. Why couldn't we have done same with the _Kōtetsu_? Do we really need ships as large as _Yamato_, much less _Yonaga_ . . .?"

"What are you saying?" Mitoko snapped.

"I don't like the idea of the Self-Defence Forces, Mitoko-chan," the other woman immediately said. As her companions relaxed, she added, "But I agree with Hiromi-san's words that Japan has every right in the world to throw away the shackles weighing us down and stand on her own two feet without kowtowing to America all the time. Now that we're getting a massive hunk of a whole PLANET for us to settle and develop on our own – with said land no longer being claimed by the Seifukusu Dominion – then it settles not just the question of natural resource supply for our industries in Japan, but also gives our people a chance to grow and expand beyond the borders of our nation. WITHOUT the necessity of intruding on other people's territories." She then held up a finger. "There's already talk of trying to establish an Ainu colony in Shinwakoku." The name _Shinwakoku_, meaning "new country of the Wa," was the proposed colony name for Japan's land holdings on Pacifica. "Given that it's over fifty light-years from here . . . "

"AND close to the Noukiite frontier, thus guaranteeing its safety," Mosui said. "There's no need to worry about any sort of grand defensive strategy for the planet."

"Can we be sure of that?"

Eyes locked on Hiromi. "But the Noukiites are friendly to us!" Kenzō stated.

"True. But remember that Pacifica is also not too far away from Zephyrus," the reborn emperor stated. "And while the majority of Zephyrites really don't care about what happens to us, there are those on that planet who don't like the idea of a race of _designer clones_ having privileged access to technology of their 'ancient homeworld.'" She made finger-quotes on saying that. "People really don't know this, Kenzō-san, but ever since the official handover of the former Seifukusu colony worlds to our joint control, delegations from Zephyrus – mostly arising from their Scripturalist Order – have been bombarding both New York City and Suchkyuk demanding that all the ships of the Earth Defence Force be turned over to their control." As the visitors all gaped, she then asked, "Why? Simple reason. Our ships have the ability to travel to Sagussa without being stopped by the Galactic Barrier. Zephyrite ships are not so advanced and they're still some decades away from getting to that point. And I've been told that the leaders of the Scripturalist Order can easily make the most religiously devout zealot here on Earth look quite tame in comparison." She then crossed her arms. "So say in the future, the Shinwakoku colony is established and developing its own starship construction industry. What's to stop Zephyrite pirates from absconding with ships?"

"Why would they want to do that?" Mosui asked.

"Sagussa is currently – or so latest intelligence states – inhabited by transplanted residents of many planets from across the local cluster," Hiromi answered. "Including people from Earth." She decided not to go into any detail concerning HOW those people had been resettled there; even now with her most trusted advisors urging her to send a ship to that world, the concept of what her own brother had encountered when he was a child of six still bothered her. "However, when this migration occurred, Zephyrus – as well as Avalon and Kurakoa, who all are descent genetically from the race that once lived on Sagussa – were not solicited for potential migrants. To the leaders of the Scripturalist Order, this is a massive affront to the Zephyrite race as a whole and cannot be tolerated." A smirk. "In much the same manner as how some in the Middle East view the existence of Israel, even now with Jadiid ash-Shām being opened for settlement by the Syrians, the Palestinians, the Lebanese and the Jordanians."

"They're religious fanatics, you mean," Shikiko mused.

A nod. "They are. And because we Avalonians do not subscribe to their view of the Universe, we're seen as 'heretics' deserving to either be excommunicated – which, in the Zephyrite lexicon, means 'executed' – or be forcibly converted into adhering to their faith." As her visitors all made faces on hearing that, she then said, "Given what many sisters had endured at the hands of the Niphentaxians, having others come dictate how they'll live does not sit well with ANY Avalonian. And it shouldn't sit well with any Terran regardless of faith or belief. I personally will be damned to the lowest pit of Hell if I allow such people to get away with anything that could see us dictated to in that fashion." She sighed. "That is why – knowing how much of a debate her inclusion into the Maritime Self-Defence Forces would unleash – I was more than agreeable to the idea of allowing _Yonaga_ to be commissioned. Yes, it was possible to turn her over to the control of the South Koreans. They're now experimenting with helicopter carriers with the launch of their Tokdo-class amphibious assault command ships. But when the debate over who would get what type of ship happened, the governments in Sŏul and P'yŏng'yang were more interested in getting missile cruisers to act as close combat escorts to _Paekb__ŏ__m_. Because of that, they were willing to trade off the chance to get an aircraft carrier to us. The Mongolians were not interested in such a ship and the Taiwanese have no desire to gain such a large ship in the face of possible objections from Běijīng." A shrug. "In essence, we won out."

"I still don't like it," Kenzō stated.

"Not that many people should like it."

Eyes locked on Mioko. "What do you mean?" Mitoko asked.

The reborn empress smiled. "As a tōshi, I'm not as much into current politics as you people are," she admitted before sipping her tea. "But I know intrinsically that there are monsters out there in Creation. Who claim to be 'civilised' . . . but are prepared to do ANYTHING, unleash ANY sort of horror, on innocent people wanting to live their lives in peace and harmony within themselves and with their fellow man. In my first life, I lived – even briefly – through such a horror. And I've met many Avalonians who lived in a nightmarish existence for years because they were seen simply as _machines_. Do you have Avalonian friends, Mitoko-san? People who were former slaves of the Niphentaxians?" At the other woman's nod, Mioko smiled. "So do I. And much that they are finally getting over what they were forced through before Ganzo-ojiisan, my beloved, her siblings and our friends from Noukiios and Yehisril liberated them from such a horror, there is still their pain and their memories. And the determination to not ever let it happen again." Another sip of her tea, and then she smiled. "Many Avalonians who moved to Japan voted for your friends in the _Kyōsan-tō_ in the elections two years ago, didn't they? Did they do that because they wanted to make fools of your friends in the Diet? No. They did it because you people are all dreamers. And you deserve to continue dreaming of an egalitarian and just society that is at peace with itself and with other nations. That's what won the votes in the election. But they're also realists. They know monsters are out there. And they are prepared to stand and fight those monsters . . . so you can all continue to dream." A sigh. "Captain Umezu and his crew on _Yamato_ – much less Commander Kaieda and his crew on _K__ō__tetsu_ – serve on their ships to give you all the chance to do that. Is that so wrong in the end?"

"Is it RIGHT to promote the same sort of thinking that killed three million of our people – to say anything of millions more elsewhere – seventy years ago?"

Hiromi's and Mioko's eyes then locked on the man in the very back of the crowd. Perhaps the most handsome man of the group that were visiting the reborn emperor and empress of the Latter Hàn, Miura Motokata was a graduate student at Tōkyō Medical University two years away from being properly accredited as a medical doctor and commencing his internship. "No, it is not right to promote such a thing, Motokata-san," Hiromi stated. "But it is also right – the basic nature of democracy, in fact – to allow ALL who desire a say in the course of government to be heard. When the question of _Yonaga_ being commissioned was first proposed in February, I asked ALL of the members of the House of Representatives in the Diet to consult with their constituents to learn of their opinions concerning the commissioning of such a vessel into the Self-Defence Forces. The response was quite strong even if there were reservations. And the leaders of the Self-Defence Forces are fully aware of those reservations. There is no need to fear the possible resurgence of the type of radical militarism that led us into a losing war against the Americans seventy years ago, Motokata-san."

A sigh. "Don't be sure of that, Hiromi-san." He then stood. "Excuse me."

"Moto-kun . . .!" Shikiko gasped as she moved to stop him.

He slipped around her before stepping into the genkan and slipping on his shoes. Silence reigned over the living room as he walked out of the house. After a minute, Kenzō sighed. "Forgive him, please," he then begged his hosts. "Motokata-kun has his reasons for standing against any sort of overt militarism coming back to Japan."

"Why is that?" Mioko asked. "The shame he felt was like a tsunami."

"With reason," Shikiko stated, her voice hollow. "His great-great-grandfather, Colonel Miura Daisuke, was an officer in Unit 731 before and during the war." As Hiromi and Mioko winced on hearing of the infamous biological/chemical warfare research unit, she added, "He was one of many who were given a 'get out of jail free' card by the Americans after the war ended and the Soviets wanted to get their hands on General Ishii and his friends to drag them to Xabárovsk for war crimes trials. He was employed at the American chemical warfare facility in Maryland for a while until he accidentally breathed in toxic gases he was working on in an experiment one day in the early 1950s. The rest of the family pretended it didn't happen, but when he found out . . . "

"That poor man," Mioko whispered . . .

* * *

_Stupid people! They _don't_ understand! They _don't_ see the danger . . .!_

Shuddering back the scalding anger he felt at the total failure of his friends to make the leader of the Earth Defence Force bend when it came to _Yonaga_ – and yes, he KNEW where the name had actually come from! – and her "place" in the Self-Defence Forces, Motokata could only breathe out as he make his way towards the Tomobiki-chūō JR station so he could take the ride back to Shinjuku and his apartment. Much that he was a very passionate man when it came to medicine, he was just as passionate when it came to politics . . . and he was one of a growing number of people across Japan who were finding themselves looking at their culture and nation, gazing back into their homeland's blood-soaked past and feeling nothing but shame at the cavalier attitude so many had when it came to confronting that past, learning the lessons of that past and building a future society that acknowledged AND accepted what brutality the natives of this land had unleashed on countless millions across eastern Asia seven decades before.

_The ice . . . the ice . . . it will come from the ice! The seventh one . . .!_

The medical student shuddered as he once again remembered the weak voice of his own great-great-grandfather – crippled into a bare husk of a human being thanks to an accident experimenting with the very same chemicals that had been used to murder helpless civilians years before – after Motokata had been brought to the Juntendō University Hospital ten years ago by his mother Noriko to be introduced to the former Imperial Army colonel. And when he found out what Miura Daisuke had done when he had served in the Kantō Army . . .! _How could Ok__ā__-san and Ot__ō__-san, much less Ojii-san and Ob__ā__-san, just IGNORE what that creature had done? Pretend it never happened at all . . .!_

"You look a little miffed, Motokata-kun."

He stopped on hearing that voice, and then he turned, a pained smile crossing his face. "There was no hope of moving either of them, Kathryn-san."

Walking up to him from a nearby yatai was a very beautiful middle-aged woman who clearly was an American-raised Japanese by ethnicity. While Suzuki Kathryn was a native of Hawai'i – she hailed from the town of Mililani on O'ahu – she did have relatives who lived near Hollywood, which is where Motokata had first assumed she hailed when they met three months ago. Her physical looks – which were a perfect mix of classic Oriental in the face and drop-dead gorgeous American supermodel in the body – were enough to make an elderly retiree excited, which no doubt helped in missions for her employers across the world, ranging from the co-workers of the infamous Carlos the Jackal to Mu'ammar al-Qaḏḏāfī.

He knew what she was.

He didn't care.

Suzuki Kathryn and her friends were a means to an end.

She looked on him the very same way.

He knew that and accepted it.

As did she.

It made things very easy in the end run.

"Well, that's to be expected," Kathryn quietly breathed out as she slipped her arm around his as she walked him down the street, her almost-black eyes scanning around to ensure they weren't being snooped upon. "But like it or not, my employers are starting to get impatient. We'll have to move hard on them sooner or later."

Motokata blinked. "They're _t__ō__shi_, remember . . . "

A dismissive snort. "No one's invulnerable from a _**bullet**_. Or a **_knife_**," she advised.

He took that in, and then he nodded . . .

* * *

_Merciful Allāh be praised! It's been SO long, Kathryn . . .!_

Watching the beautiful terrorist walk her companion towards the subway station, the casually-dressed woman in the knit sweater and jeans – with a scarf covering most of her long raven hair and a pair of sunglasses over her dark brown eyes – could only smile before she turned back to enjoy the well-cooked shrimp okonomiyaki that had been prepared for her by a smiling chef at one of the yatai set up close to the entrance of the Tomobiki Ginza. _How much have you changed over the years, I wonder_, Jawna bint-Hasan 'Amawāsi' min-Alamūt Jalil wondered to herself as she glanced out of the corner of her eye to see Suzuki Kathryn and her companion turn the corner and head up the stairs leading into the local urban train station. _Or have you changed at all . . .?_

"Excuse me."

Jawna perked on hearing that calm voice, and then she turned to look . . . before her eyes then turned down to find herself gazing on a young girl dressed now in a child's kimono and hakama. Noting the chestnut hair and lavender eyes – and the magatama earring hanging off the left lobe, coloured silver to mark this child as B-rank amongst her peers – the native of the eastern Libyan city of Al Baiḍā' could only smile on recognising the reborn Xiàoxiàn Emperor of China's Latter Hàn Dynasty. "«Young Mistess Kanami, are your parents aware that you're away from the house?»" she then asked in literate Mandarin, which was one of several languages she could speak beyond her native Arabic.

Kanami blinked, her eyebrow arching in surprise on hearing this woman speak that way, and then she sighed. "«Your ki is bleeding out a little too much, Lìngzǐ,»" she advised the older woman. "«Most people here in Tomobiki would not be able to sense it, but I can. You're literally a beacon in the eyes of Zūngūmā . . . »"

"«Kanami, what did I tell you about using such terms with me?»"

Kanami jerked on hearing that toneless voice, and then she turned as a familiar woman dressed in midnight black from neck to toe came up. "Oba-sama . . .!"

A sigh. "Never mind," Negako breathed out before her dark eyes fixed on Jawna for a moment before she turned to gaze towards Tomobiki-chūō station. "«A friend of yours, Jawna?»" she asked in Arabic. "«From before you became part of the _Asāsiyyin_?»"

The visitor from Libya – who had become surprisingly pale on noting who had just come up to join them – shakily nodded. "«Yes, Great Mistress . . . »"

Negako's eyes flashed. "«Do NOT call me that.»"

Jawna jerked. "«But Great Lady . . .!»"

"«Did Hirosuke ask for such respect from your predecessors when he came to Alamūt to teach the servants of Hasan-e Sabbāh his Art?»" Negako then wondered.

The visitor from Libya blinked, and then she blushed. "«No . . . »"

"«Then why expect me to demand differently?»"

Silence fell as Jawna considered that, and then she bowed her head. "«I humbly beg your forgiveness, Lady Negako,»" she then apologised. "«I was overwhelmed by your presence and lost control of myself for a moment. Your noble reborn niece also shines with the great power gifted unto her in her first life by the Immortal One's blood.»"

A sigh. "«Do not do it again,»" Negako then stated. "«Why are you here?»"

"«The ship you named _Yonaga_.»"

The ninjutsu grandmaster's eyebrow arched . . .

* * *

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (near Anchorage, Alaska), an hour before midnight (local time) . . .

"You actually fly at _this_ time of night?"

A smirk crossed the face of the Canadian army sergeant, who was standing right next to her sleek mount as the grumbling American navy ensign came up to her. "Ensign Ross, the CSF-148 is designed as a _space_ fighter," Pilot Sergeant Judy McLeod stated as she exchanged salutes with Ensign Sarah Ross. "Translation: She can fly in ALL weather conditions both in atmosphere and up in space. Weren't you briefed?"

Sarah took a deep breath. "Yes, I was. But as I recall, Sergeant . . . "

"_Pilot_ Sergeant, please," Judy corrected her.

The ensign jerked. "Sorry, _Pilot_ Sergeant," she said, trying not to grumble too much at the veteran Canadian pilot's insistence on using the rank structure unique to that nation's reformed army tactical aviation forces. "But as I recall, your job is to support troops on the ground from rough airfields. No different than what an A-10 Warthog pilot does with his machine. Why make the Camel a space fighter like the Arrow and the Starfire are? Not to mention the Ghostrider and the Valkyrie?"

Judy smiled as she waved the other woman up the ladder into the cockpit. "Because you simply never know what might be coming down the pike to hurt us, Ensign," she stated as Sarah climbed up and moved to sit down in the weapons controller's seat. Like the CSF-196 Starfire – which had been adopted by Bombardier Aerospace even though all models of the starship-launched space fighter were built in space – the Magellan Aerospace/Sopwith Canada CSF-148 Camel III had been built from the start to be a two-crew aircraft: A pilot up front doing the flying and navigation elements of a mission and a weapons controller – what the United States military designated as a "weapons systems officer" – in the back handling the ordnance load. As Judy's normal weapons controller, Corporal Kelley Stuart, climbed up to help the ensign get secured in, she added, "The design philosophy of the Camel III is no different than the Camel II's design philosophy back in the late 1930s. Help the poor fools on the ground survive so they can go home to Mom and Dad by breaking tanks, but be prepared to mix it up in a knife fight with the enemy's air force should they come out to play."

Sarah nodded in understanding. Just two years fresh out of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, she was a restricted line intelligence officer by training, following in the footsteps of her father Brent, mother Pamela and grandfather Theodore. But like other officers currently serving in the United States Navy – as with other military services across Earth – the last year had seen a massive upheaval in employment opportunities in a dimension that couldn't have been imagined outside the realm of science fiction. Currently assigned to Pre-Commissioning Unit _Enterprise_ (SCV-81), the administrative formation that would eventually form the "plank owner" crew of America's first space aircraft carrier in two months' time, Ensign Sarah Ross was spending time acquainting herself with all aspects of future joint operations in the Earth Defence Force, both within the United States armed forces and with the armed forces of her fellow nations in the North Pacific Division of the UNEDF. Including that of her northern neighbour.

"There you go, Miss Ross," Kelley stated with a smile as she secured the four-point seat belt around the ensign's flight suit-covered body. "Now don't you be making etchi eyes at the pilot sergeant," she then said as she wagged her finger at the other woman. "She's got a girlfriend back in Dundurn who gets jealous easy."

"THANK you, Corporal!" Judy said as she slipped herself into the pilot's seat.

Kelley laughed before she stepped over to help the pilot sergeant buckle in. Trying not to shake her head too much at the antics between her current mission commander and her nominal number-two, Sarah then looked right to see her classmate from Annapolis – and would-be girlfriend – Ensign Leigh Rhyne boarding into the rear seat of another Camel III that was normally flown by Judy's wingmate, Pilot Warrant Officer Charlene Sanderhausen. Leigh, a native of Mississippi who had just graduated from the Advanced Strike pipeline of naval aviator training at Naval Air Station Meridian, had volunteered immediately to transition to the Starfire and be assigned to one of the squadrons to be soon flying from the new _Enterprise_ as a pilot in the soon-to-transform Strike Fighter Squadron 136 (the Knighthawks), an element of Carrier Air Wing One, which would begin transitioning from atmospheric naval operations to space operations as soon as the current "Big E" based out of Norfolk was decommissioned and VFA-136 could then officially be redesignated SVF-136 (Space Fighter Squadron 136).

As Charlene's weapons controller, Trooper Elaine Francis, moved to buckle Leigh in, Sarah sighed as she took a moment to review the performance statistics of the Camel III. An impulse pulsejet-powered trans-atmospheric tactical fighter, CSF-148s physically looked like twin-rudder versions of the Eurofighter Typhoon, though they were painted a mixture of mottled green over sky blue on the underside, low-visibility Canadian Forces markings on the wings, hull and rudders. Like the Starfire, the Camel III – named in honour of the Sopwith F.1 Camel of World War One and her less-known spiritual "son" from the Second World War, the Sopwith Canada So-48 Camel II – had hard points for nearly 12,000 kilograms of munitions that could be retracted into the hull, thus making the surfaces flush and helping make the fighter almost invisible to normal tracking radar. Capable of Mach 2.5 in atmosphere, the Camel III – once in the near-vacuum of space – could accelerate to a quarter of the speed of light and fly out to the orbit line of the Moon if required. Of course, as the ship was designed as a ground-support aircraft, the Camel III didn't have the longer range of its "pure" air force cousin, the Bombardier Aerospace/Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow II planetary defence space fighter now being used by squadrons of Air Command based out of Cold Lake and Bagotville. Nor could it be deployed on most Earth Defence Force ship models.

She then jolted as she heard the canopy come down and lock in over the cockpit. "Okay, we're sealed and pressurised," Judy announced over the intercom. "Garb Delta-Two-Delta to Two-Bravo, communications check, over," she then called out.

"Delta-Two-Delta, Two-Bravo, coming in five-by-five," Charlene replied back as Sarah watched the canopy of the pilot warrant officer's ship close and lock up. "Elmendorf Tower, this is Garb Delta-Two-Bravo with two, ready to taxi, over."

"Delta-Two-Bravo, Elmendorf Tower, you are clear to taxi to Runway 6/24 via Taxiway Two," the air traffic controller at the base tower replied.

"Roger. Trot out in single file, Two-Delta."

"Roger that, Two-Bravo," Judy said as she eased the brake off.

The two space fighters began to wheel out of the flight line by the guest hangar being used by D Squadron of the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment (Air) for their first-ever exercise deployment as back-up NORAD aerospace sovereignty patrol to the American Air Force's 3d Space Fighter Wing, which had transitioned from the F-22 Raptor to the F-24 Ghostrider space fighter at the start of the current year after NORAD had been given the extra tasking of helping protect cislunar space over North America by the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada. Remembering that, Sarah turned to gaze on two of the Ghostriders – which resembled a more rounder and stealthier version of the fictitious MiG-31 Firefox stealth fighter from the 1982 Clint Eastwood film based on the novel published in 1977 by the late Craig Thomas – at the parking line for the 90th Space Fighter Squadron (the Dicemen) off Taxiway Two. Gazing on them, Sarah grinned; the _Voenno-vozdušnye Sily Rossii_ received as their own space superiority fighter a similar-looking aircraft which was instantly adopted by the Mikojan i Gurevič Aircraft Corporation as the MiG-37 . . . and was promptly assigned the NATO reporting name "Firefox" when it was taken on strength on New Year's Day with the 19th Space Fighter Aviation Regiment based in Míllerovo near Rostov-na-Donu.

_Must have been a fan of the film_, the ensign mused to herself.

Soon enough, the two CSF-148s had made their way to the western end of Runway 6/24, which pointed out towards Knik Arm, one branch of Cook Inlet on whose shores Alaska's largest city was located. Turning onto the three kilometre-long runway, the two Canadian Army aircraft waited as Charlene called up to the tower for clearance to roll. Once given, the two Camel IIIs tore down the runway, lifting off the ground just as they crossed Runway 16/34. Immediately, Charlene pulled her stick back and to the left, allowing her machine to climb dizzily high into the sky and arc northward towards Fairbanks to commence a lazy circle over the whole of America's largest state and the waters bordering her. Keeping close to her starboard wing, Judy matched her troop warrant's movements with precision born of years of working together on various airplanes since both women had joined the militia Saskatchewan Cavalrymen as armoured crewmen a decade before . . . which for the former senior regiment of the Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry, was just a convenient cover to allow them to pilot Huey and Twin Huey helicopters as auxiliary tactical aviation support to Land Forces Western Area.

Remembering that, Sarah had to smirk as she recalled what she had been briefed on when it came to how the Air Cavalry regiments had survived the Unification of the Canadian military into one service in 1968 and kept the flying skills of its officers and non-commissioned members alive and well. Playing an interesting game of blind man's bluff with the bean-counters in Ottawa, regimental commanders of those units that were not placed on the Supplementary Order of Battle – in effect, disbanded in all but name – in 1970 made sure that "unofficial flying troops" of four helicopters were kept in place with all the surviving squadrons across the nation. This ensured that pilot-qualified cavalry officers, warrant officers and sergeants – even if they were officially classified as either armoured or infantry officers or soldiers – could be there should a general mobilisation be ordered and tactical aviation forces were increased from the standing six squadrons of the Air Force's 1 Wing to whatever was required for a wartime army.

When the Avalonians migrated to Earth in the late winter of 2010, those who moved into Canada – like their sisters elsewhere – began flocking into recruiting centres to increase the number of personnel serving in reserve military units from mere cadre levels to full wartime fighting strength. For the former Air Cavalry regiments, they soon got champions with the elder mothers of various communities, who began to press the Ministry of National Defence into allowing such units to assume their traditional role as Army tactical aviation forces. In the wake of the Yaminokuni mission that summer – which had been supported by an _all-Militia_ armoured brigade group from across the Dominion! – the Canadian Parliament passed a special resolution restoring the Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry to the active order of battle as a sub-group of the Air Operations Branch, which was the personnel group for all "air force" trades. By the turn of the year, the former squadrons of 1 Wing had been administratively stood down to be replaced by six active regiments of the Air Cavalry. One of those units, 427 "Lion" Special Operations Aviation Squadron based out of Petawawa northwest of Ottawa in Ontario, was shifted west to the former army airfield in Dundurn, south of Saskatoon, and officially reborn as the Regular Force element of the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment (Air), which was immediately assigned to the new special forces formation being headquartered at Shilo in Manitoba, the 6th Canadian Brigade Group (Light).

Once that was done and the Regular Force Regiment was stood up on New Year's Day 2011, it was simply natural for members of the Militia Regiment – officially, the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment (Air) (Militia), headquartered in Saskatoon and assigned administratively as a unit of the 38th Canadian Brigade Group – to volunteer to spend time on Class C service while new pilots and air cavalry troopers began passing through the just-formed Air Cavalry School at Dundurn. At least forty percent of the part-time pilots who had come to fly for their regiment's Regular Force element were women . . . and most of them these days were Terran-turned-Avalonians; the first group of Terran-form Avalonian pilots wouldn't be taken on strength for another eighteen months as they were still undergoing Basic Flying Training at the NATO Flight Training Centre, based out of 15 Wing in Moose Jaw, west of the Saskatchewan capital of Regina. The two pilots Sarah and Leigh were currently flying with today had become Avalonians sometime after their home regiment had been effectively brought back to flight status the previous August.

She then blinked as the glare of a mid-summer sun seemed to blast through the canopy of her aircraft as the two Camel IIIs zoomed up and over the Arctic Circle and the Yukon River near the former Hudson's Bay Company trading post at Fort Yukon. "Damn!" she breathed out as she watched her helmet's visor darken. "That's bright!"

"Mid-summer, Ensign," Judy said. "And we're right now at Angels Ninety. Even if we were below the Circle, we can see the sun even if sunset was a few hours ago."

_Angels Ninety? Ninety thousand feet?_ Sarah thought as her skin paled significantly before she turned to gaze out the cockpit at the sea of clouds and the mixed mountainous and tundra terrain of northern Alaska FAR below. "How . . .?"

"Do we get off if we have to eject?" the pilot sergeant asked, a flash of amusement in her voice. "Your flight suit's got a materialiser locator beacon on it. Instant something happens and we have to get out, I activate the beacon and the nearest materialiser would whisk us out before the plane decompresses. Same code as the law of the sea, Ensign. Space is a hell of a lot less forgiving than the open ocean."

A sigh. "Good point."

"Chill out, Sarah!" came a familiar twang-tinged voice over the communications unit. "You volunteered to go serve on the new Big E, so you're gonna be in space!"

"Yeah, but I think I'd prefer to have several million tonnes of ship around me in lieu of flying on a fighter, Leigh," Sarah called back.

Both Air Cavalry pilots laughed. "It's hard to get used to, Ensign," Charlene then called out from her CSF-148. "Don't worry about it, though. The two bright little kids who designed these birds made them as survivable as they could conceive of. Hasn't been a single accident with a Starfire, Star Flare or Space Dhow yet . . . "

"That's the point, Pilot Warrant: _Yet_!" Sarah insisted.

A chime echoed through the two Camel IIIs. "_Dóbryj Den'_, _Továrišči_!" a cheerful woman's voice echoed over the communications unit. "Beautiful night for flying, _da_?"

Both Air Cavalry pilots laughed. "What are you doing up here, Ira?" Charlene then challenged. "I thought your shift wasn't until Monday! Your time, that is!"

Another laugh. "Ah, Tanja got a case of stomach poisoning!" Pilot Senior Sergeant Irina Vjačeslavovna Sergejeva replied back from the cockpit of her MiG-37, which was currently at sixty kilometres altitude over the forests and mountains of the Kamčatskij Peninsula far to the southwest of the two Canadian aircraft. A founding member of the 46th (Taman Guards) Space Fighter Aviation Regiment – given the same regimental number and name as the legendary all-women's night bomber unit that had been respectfully nicknamed the _Nachthexen_ by the Germans during the Second World War – Irina was currently based with her co-workers of the 587th (Marína Mixájlovna Raskóva) Space Fighter Squadron out of Elizovo Airport near Petropávlovsk-Kamčátskij. "She should get over it soon enough. So what are you doing up in the sky this late at night, Charlene?"

"Doing test flights for would-be crewmen for the new _Enterprise_ while we're busy being back-up pilots for the 3rd Wing at Elmendorf, Ira," the pilot warrant officer from Saskatoon replied. "One's a Starfire pilot, the other's an intel girl."

"Ah! Good! Good! More the . . . "

Another chime. "Hello! Is this the space fighter frequency?" a sober woman's voice called out in Russian . . . which was instantly translated into English for the benefit of the two Air Cavalry pilots and the two American naval officers.

"_Da_! This is Pilot Senior Sergeant Irina Vjačeslavovna Sergejeva, 587th Space Fighter Squadron, 46th Space Fighter Aviation Regiment out of Elizovo. Who's this?"

"Ah, sorry about that, Comrade Pilot Senior Sergeant," the strange woman then apologised. "This is Senior Lieutenant Valentína Ivánovna Tjútina of the Providénskij District Police. I've been trying to contact someone in Xabárovsk to help with a missing surface boat and two of my officers, but they won't answer me, so I'm trying you."

The people in the two Camel IIIs all tensed. "What's wrong, Comrade Senior Lieutenant?" Irina then demanded. "You're missing two officers?"

"_Da_! And a fishing boat one of the officers owned that she allowed us to use to patrol the shores in the district, especially whenever the eco-tourists come here to live with nature!" the police lieutenant called back. "Both of them are _Kosmičeskie Angely_, born as such and adopted by two former Great Patriotic War veterans. One of those good fellows is Senior Sergeant Pável Petróvič Gógol' from Ust'-Ilímsk; the man who lives by the river where that gold deposit was discovered some years ago."

"Oh!" Irina gasped. "Grandpapa Paša, you mean! The sniper who won two gold stars on the long walk to Berlin! _Da_, I know of him! His daughter works for you?"

"_Da_!" Valentína replied. "Maša – that's her name, Maria Gógol'a – went out with her friend Ekaterina Lébed'a to do a survey of the area around Ytygran and Arakamčečen to allow their dataPADDs to do a full scan of the environment so that if we have to go rescue some damned fool tree-hugger who gets marooned on the islands near our town, we don't have to waste time trying to find them. But we lost contact with both of them just after lunch, when that little earthquake hit, the ones the Americans are reporting occurred near the Fox Islands today. And we can't raise them."

A sigh. "Understood. I can do a detailed pass over the area. Do you have DNA scans of Comrades Gógol'a and Lébed'a so we can concentrate the search?"

"_Da_, transmitting up now."

"_Spasíbo_!" A pause, and then, "Got it! Okay, I'll head on down to look."

"_Spasíbo_, _Továrišč_! It is appreciated!"

"I'll come for some vódka from you one day, Comrade Senior Lieutenant!"

"And I will have a bottle of Jurij Dolgorukij waiting for you, Comrade Pilot Senior Sergeant," the police lieutenant promised from her office.

"You are _kul'turnyj_, Valentína Ivánovna!"

"As are you, Irina Vjačeslavovna!"

"I'll call in when I have some results."

"_Spasíbo_, _Továrišč_!"

The link with Providénija was then cut. "Ira, we overheard all that," Charlene then said. "Do you want us to provide some top cover for you when you go down?"

"Would you mind?" Irina asked.

"I can help, too!"

The pilots of both Camel IIIs blinked. "Who's this?" Irina demanded.

"Sarah Ross, Ensign, United States Navy," Sarah responded. "My grandfather Ted owns a cargo boat out of Teller on the Seward Peninsula, Pilot Senior Sergeant. He has a dataPADD on his ship, the _Sparta_. He might be out on the water now."

"Call him," the Russian pilot then bade.

"Alright! Um, Pilot Sergeant . . .?"

"Link's open," Judy announced.

A sigh. "Ensign Sarah Ross calling Captain Ted Ross on _Sparta_, come in . . . "

* * *

The Bering Sea, three hundred kilometres north of Kiska Island . . .

"Captain!"

"What is it?"

"Sir, your granddaughter's calling on the PADD!"

Hearing that, the aged and white-haired sailor – Theodore Ross, known as "Ted" informally and having earned the nickname "Trigger" in his youth while serving in the United States Navy during the Pacific side of World War Two – blinked as he scanned the dark skies ahead of his old cargo ship, and then he sighed as he walked into the wheelhouse, which was currently manned by helmsman Todd Edmundson and engineer's mate Mark Jurovic. Heading over to the iPad-shaped device now affixed to the shelf in front of his chair, he was quick to note the blinking icon on the screen, and then he smiled as he tapped it; Mark had seen the message on it, but hadn't responded. "_Sparta_, Ross," the retired naval captain then said as he sat in his chair. "Where the devil are you, Sarah?"

"Believe it or not, at Angels Ninety over the North Cape of Alaska flying on a Camel III piloted by one of the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry, Grandpa," Sarah replied back, which made the elderly sailor laugh. "Where are you right now? Are you out at sea?"

"North of Kiska, heading northeast towards home after delivering some parts to the Coast Guard Station on Attu from Anchorage," Ted replied. "What's wrong?"

"How far north?"

Hearing that, Todd looked at the computer navigation plot posted in front of the helm platform. "One hundred and ninety-six nautical miles north of Sirius Point, sir."

"One-nine-six nautical north of Sirius Point, Sarah," Ted relayed.

"Oh, darn!"

The older sailor tensed. "What's wrong?" he repeated himself.

A sigh. "Two Russian policewomen were on a fishing boat out of Providénija doing a look-around of both Ytygran and Arakamčečen Islands with a dataPADD to prepare for the eco-tourist season. They haven't called in to their station for a bit and their boss got so worried, she called up to one of the pilots flying a Firefox on local space patrol out of Petropávlovsk-Kamčátskij. She's going down to take a look . . . "

Ted squeezed his eyes closed. "Both Avalonians, I take it?"

"Yeah . . . "

"Damn!" he snapped. Like many people across the planet, he had been both astonished and sickened when he had learned the full story of the Cosmic Angels; Ted rather liked the English translation of the Russian _Kosmičeskie Angely_ when it came to give a name to the race of unbelievably beautiful and eager bioroid women from the stars. While he didn't have one as a member of _Sparta_'s crew, there were Avalonian-Americans living all across Alaska, including Teller. While Ted had pretty much got over the death of his wife years ago and felt himself beyond the need to seek out a new wife, he still found himself often gaping in awe at such incredible visions of physical perfection. And given how helpful that race had been since they had moved en masse to Earth the previous winter . . .! "What's our speed, Mister Jurovic?" he asked.

"We're doing half-ahead on both engines now, Captain," Mark replied. "We can probably coax a few more knots out of her, but Arakamčečen Island's over five hundred miles away, sir. It'd be over a day before we got anywhere close to that place!"

"Well, we're heading up in that direction anyway," Ted stated. "Sarah?"

"Yeah, Grandpa?"

"It'd be over a day before we got anywhere close to Arakamčečen," the older man warned his granddaughter. "We'll try to coax some more knots out of her, but it'll be quite a while before we even got close to the entrance of the Bering Strait."

"Any other ships in the area?" Sarah said, her voice tinged with sorrow.

Ted winced; Sarah had always looked up to him as a sort of invincible old man of the sea. But like it or not, _Sparta_ was an old tramp freighter; she wasn't a fast boat. "We can call out and ask. We'll do that right now," he promised.

Her voice brightened. "Thanks, Grandpa!"

"I'll call the Coast Guard and get them alerted!"

"Damn! Should've thought of that! Thanks, Grandpa!"

He chuckled. "You get home safe, Sarah," he warned.

"Yeah! Ensign Ross, out!"

"_Sparta_ out," Ted said as he tapped the PADD to close the link, and then he took a deep breath before gazing at the man by the engine telegraph. "Mister Jurovic?"

"Yes, Captain?"

"Have Mister Whitener come to the bridge, please?"

"Aye-aye, sir!"

"And bring her full ahead on both engines."

"Aye, sir!"

The telegraph was rung to FULL AHEAD before Mike picked up the nearby growler phone and dialled a number. "Captain wants you on the bridge, Hugh."

"On my way," the ship's first officer, Hugh Whitener, replied . . .

_**To be continued . . .**_

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES:**

1) The **Compact of Free Association** is a treaty signed between the United States of America and three of its former possessions in the western Pacific region: the Federated States of Micronesia (which became independent in 1986), the Republic of the Marshall Islands (independent the same year) and the Republic of Palau (which became independent in 1978, but didn't enter in a Compact with America until 1993). Part of the stipulations of the Compact is that the United States is in charge of all defensive needs concerning its former territories. In conjunction with that, citizens from the Federated States, the Marshall Islands and Palau could enter the United States armed forces without the necessity of obtaining a work visa. However, as they are not American citizens, citizens of the three republics in question cannot become either commissioned officers or warrant officers while in the military.

2) American ship name notes: **United States Starship **_**Majuro**_ (hull classification code **SFF-64**) is named after the capital city of the Marshall Islands; **U.S.S. **_**Totolom**_ (**SFF-65**) is named after the highest hill in the Federated States, located on Pohnpei Island; and **U.S.S. **_**Ngerchelchuus**_ (**SFF-66**) is named after the highest mountain on Palau.

3) The **Ukranian Naval Forces Starship **_**Dmitro I. Višnevéc'kij**_ (pendant number **SBBV-563**) is named after the first true Cossack hetman (the highest military commander below the monarch) in history; he lived from 1516-63 and served a whole host of leaders, including the infamous Tsar **Ivan IV** (Ivan the Terrible) of Russia (1530-84). Note that I used the Scholarly Romanisation of Ukrainian, which is similar to the Scientific Romanisation system for Russian; **Čornobil'** is the proper way of writing "Chernobyl" and **Kiїv **is how one says the name of the capital city of the Ukraine, "Kiev."

4) The **Icelandic Coast Guard Starship **_**Óðinn**_ (pendant number **SFF-26**), named in honour of Odin (the All-Father and King of Asgard as fans of _Thor_ will recognise), is named also after a series of patrol ships that have served in the **Landhelgisgæslan** (the Icelandic Coast Guard) from 1925-36 (_Óðinn_ I), 1938-64 (_Óðinn_ II) and from 1960-2006 (_Óðinn_ III). The third _Óðinn_ is now a museum ship in Reykjavík. Note that the **ð** letter is sometimes written **eth** or **edh** when one doesn't have access to special characters; capitalised, it's **Ð**. The sound this letter represents is the voiced dental fricative sound similar to the **th** in the English word "**_th_**_em_."

5) Translations: **Kyōsan-tō** – the Japanese Communist Party; **Jadiid ash-Shām** – A combination of the Arabic word for "new" with the classical term for Syria, _ash-Shām_ (in English, the planet's name is **New Levant** from the old French term for the Middle East); **Chūō** – Central/middle; **Lìngzǐ** – Beautiful Elder Sister; **Zūngūmā** – Respectful Aunt; **Asāsiyyin** – Faithful to the Foundation (of Islam); **Voenno-vozdušnye Sily Rossii** – Russian Air Force; **Dóbryj Den'** – Good Day; **Továrišči** – Plural of _továrišč_ (comrade); **Nachthexen** – Night Witches; **Spasíbo** – Thank you; **Kul'turnyj** – Cultured/Civilised.

6) The name of the character **Jawna bint-Hasan 'Amawāsi' min-Alamūt Jalil** follows an unusual interpretation of Arabic naming conventions. The first name, **Jawna**, is the given name (in Arabic, _ism_). The phrase **bint-Hasan**, meaning "daughter of Hasan," is the patronymic (_nasab_). The third name **'Amawāsi'** is a term meaning "Servant of Al-Wāsi'" (the forty-fifth of the Ninety-nine Names of God in Islam, meaning "The Vast/All-Embracing/Omnipresent/Boundless"). The term **min-Alamūt** means "from Alamūt," which identifies Jawna's spiritual home (Alamūt, meaning "Eagle's Nest," was a mountain fortress located 100 kilometres northwest of modern-day Tehrān in Iran). Thus, the whole phrase **'Amawāsi' min-Alamūt** (literally "Servant of The All-Embracing from Alamūt") is Jawna's _laqab_ (nickname), which is intended to better describe a person. And **Jalil** is the family name (_nisbah_).

7) As noted in _Avalonians and Questors_ Part 2, in the history of this universe, the famous British airplane inventor **Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith** (1888-1989) moved to Canada in the wake of the bankruptcy of his company in 1919, where he re-established the Sopwith Aviation Company. The **Sopwith So-48 Camel II** (which never existed in real life) was a combination long-range fighter and ground-attack aircraft built for the Canadian Air Cavalry Corps in the late 1930s and served throughout World War Two. My character **Major Deannette (Dean) Raeburn**, before she founded the War Hawks, was a pilot in an Air Cavalry regiment.

8) Speaking of which, the **10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment (Air)** (short-form title: **10 SASK CAV R**) is seen as the senior regiment of the **Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry** (short-form title: **RCCAC**). Based at **Canadian Forces Base Dundurn** in central Saskatchewan about 40 kilometres south of Saskatoon, the regiment first arose as a volunteer mounted rifle company during the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 and was properly established as a militia unit the very next year. Said regiment mobilised the "10th Air Reconnaissance Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force" for service in the Great War and was made formally part of the new Canadian Air Cavalry Corps (CACC) when it was established in 1920 as one of the "**Original Fifteen**" regiments (which were numbered from 1st to 15th Canadian Cavalry). Said regiment also mobilised a element of the Canadian Army Service Force (the active service army deployed overseas) for the Second World War. Allowed to maintain both a Regular Force and Reserve Force (today known as a Militia) element, the Regiment remained part of the Air Cavalry until Unification effectively shut down the RCCAC in 1970. The Militia regiment spent time as an armoured reconnaissance unit before it was allowed to return to tactical air duties in late 2010 (after the time of _Phoenix From the Ashes_) in the universe of this story. The Regular Force regiment, as indicated in the story narrative, forms part of the **6th Canadian Brigade Group (Light)**, the reincarnation of the **Special Service Force** that existed from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. The Militia regiment, today known as **10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment (Air) (Militia)**, is part of **38th Canadian Brigade Group** (the Militia in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and northwestern Ontario) and would be made a fighting element of the **14th Canadian Mechanised Brigade**, a formation of the **4th Canadian Armoured Division**, were mobilisation for a general war to occur.

9) A **Pre-Commissioning Unit** (PCU) is the organisational designation of a ship's company in the United States Navy _before_ the ship is officially commissioned into the Navy as a United States Ship/Starship. The short-form designation for the crew of the new _Enterprise_ before she becomes the ninth ship to officially bear the name is **PCU _Enterprise_**. On her commissioning would she then be called **U.S.S. _Enterprise_**. After decommissioning, the previous _Enterprise_ would then be called **ex-_Enterprise_**.

10) The non-commissioned members of a Canadian air cavalry regiment use a unique rank structure that is descent from their horse cavalry predecessors. Privates (both basic and trained [with one chevron as their rank insignia], holding the NATO rank-code equivalents of OR-2 [basic] and OR-3 [trained]) in the Air Cavalry are always addressed as **Trooper** (short-form title: **Tpr**). In reflection of that, their trade is officially addressed as **Air Cavalry Trooper** (**ACav Tpr**). In this trade, an air cavalry trooper can serve as a technician for a flying aircraft, being trained in the standard air technical trades (Aviation Technician, Avionics Technician, Aircraft Structures Technician and Non-Destructive Testing Technician) at the **Canadian Forces School of Aerospace Technology and Engineering** (**CFSATE**) in Borden in Ontario (where Air Force technicians all learn their trades). As the air cavalry trooper serves in a line regiment and advances to the rank of corporal, s/he can then specialise as a flight engineer (for multi-engine transport craft) or a weapons controller/tactical aircraft observer. After surviving junior leadership training and being promoted to the rank of master corporal, the air cavalry trooper has to make a choice as to what s/he wants to do with his/her career. Those who choose to become pilots are slotted into a flight training billet with their unit or allowed to go to the Air Cavalry School in Dundurn. In this case, the air cavalry trooper is addressed as **Pilot Apprentice Master Corporal** (short-form title: **PAMC****pl**). On being awarded pilot's wings, an air cavalry trooper is promoted to sergeant, officially remusters (changes trades) to the follow-on trade of **Air Cavalry Pilot** (**ACav Plt**) and are addressed by the special rank title **Pilot Sergeant** (**P/Sgt**). Promotion to the warrant officer ranks allows them to keep the "pilot" prefix designation before their rank title, i.e **Pilot Warrant Officer** (**P/WO**), **Pilot Master Warrant Officer** (**P/MWO**) and **Pilot Chief Warrant Officer** (**P/CWO**). All those who are qualified pilots have the right to wear the traditional Air Cavalry "winged sabres" (winged crossed cavalry sabres with a Canadian maple leaf under the sabres, the wings using the "straight-wing" design seen in a Canadian Army parachutist's wings) insignia under their rank badge. Those master corporals who do not (for whatever reason) engage in flight training will train as supervisory technicians at CFSATE, being addressed at this stage as a **Technical Apprentice Master Corporal** (**TAMCpl**). On graduating, they are promoted to sergeant, remuster to the trade of **Air Cavalry Technician** (**ACav Tech**) and are addressed by the unique rank title of **Technical Sergeant** (**T/Sgt**). Advancing into the warrant officer trades, they retain the "technical" prefix designation before their rank title, i.e. **Technical Warrant Officer** (**T/WO**), **Technical Master Warrant Officer** (**T/MWO**) and **Technical Chief Warrant Officer** (**T/CWO**). All qualified technicians wear the "lightning sabres" insignia (crossed cavalry sables over a maple leaf with lightning bolts pointing out to either side) under their rank insignia.

11) The **46th (Taman Guards) Space Fighter Aviation Regiment** is named after a real unit that served in the Soviet Air Forces in World War Two, the **46th "Taman" Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment** (which existed between 1942-45). An all-woman fighting unit that flew the **Polikárpov Po-2** general purpose utility biplane in night bombing missions against the Germans, the members of the 46th earned the nickname _Nachthexen_ ("Night Witches") by the Germans for their incredible success against the invaders, not to mention the sheer number of missions they often flew against the enemy. The 46 SFAR is divided into four flying squadrons, each named after a famous female Soviet pilot from the Great Patriotic War: the **437th (Ekaterina Vasil'evna Budanova) Space Fighter Squadron**, the **586th (Lidia Vladimirovna Litvjak) Space Fighter Squadron**, the **587th (Marína Mixájlovna Raskóva) Space Fighter Squadron** and the **588th (Nadéžda Vasil'evna Popova) Space Fighter Squadron**.

12) **Jurij Dolgorukij** (1099-1157) was the Grand Prince of Kiev who founded Moscow. The Jurij Dolgorukij brand of vódka is made in that very city at the Moscow Distillery Crystal.

13) United States Navy Captain (retired) **Theodore "Trigger" Ross** and the crew of the _Sparta_ all appeared in _The Seventh Carrier_.


	3. Crossing The Chasm of History

The Bering Sea, between Cape Navarin (Russia) and Saint Matthew Island (Alaska), Saturday 25 July, after midnight . . .

A knock was heard at the locked door. "Enter!" a woman's voice called out.

The door then opened, revealing a seaman dressed in the green "Number Two" battle fatigues that seemed standard work dress aboard _Yonaga_, the patch on his upper arms bearing the anchor, chrysanthemum flower and single bar rank insignia of a third-class sailor. "My apologies for disturbing both of you, Senior Sergeant, Sergeant," he said in accented English, bowing politely to the two women currently quartered in the guarded guest quarters located on one of the lower levels of the carrier's island. "The Admiral wishes to see you in his quarters. Please come with me."

"As the good admiral wishes, _Továrišč Matrós_ Fujisaki," Maria Gógol'a said as she and Ekaterina Lébed'a rose from their beds to follow the younger-looking man out.

As he escorted the two Russian police officers down the corridor to the elevator that connected the island with the main hull of Imperial Japan's last aircraft carrier, Seaman 3rd Class Fujisaki Tomohisa tried not to blush too much at the fact that the senior sergeant had addressed him with the term "comrade." He had been quick to sense that the use of the word wasn't in the curt, unfeeling way he believed was expressed when the Communists had been in control of Russia and that nation had been part of a larger entity called the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics." No, the way Maria and Ekaterina had spoken the word had been – according to his own division petty officer, Boatswain Mate Second Class Tomanaga Fujio, who had studied the language during the carrier's seven decades of imprisonment in Sano Bay – with one of the more classical Russian translation of the word, which meant "adventuring companion." Didn't either of these two women realise what was really going on here? What _Yonaga_'s mission could possibly mean for them were the Americans somehow able to detect them . . .?

Into the elevator they stepped, and then Fujisaki tapped a control. He had his Type 99 short rifle at his side, but he didn't hold it threateningly against either Maria or Ekaterina. Neither women had done anything to warrant such treatment since they had been made to come aboard _Yonaga_ . . . and given the sheer beauty of both women – which had even made the eldest of the sailors aboard gape in disbelief and lust when they had been walked through the hangar deck to the island for incarceration – not a man aboard the ship wished to lay a hand or weapon on either of them. While Fujisaki himself had no living relative among the Yonaga no Tenshi back in Japan, he had heard from those who did have dreams about the beautiful girls patiently waiting for them to return home. If Maria and Ekaterina were like any of the Tenshi . . .?

The elevator stopped, and the doors slid open, revealing a long hallway. Awaiting them was a man with lieutenant-commander's pips on his collar stands. "Ah, our guests," he said with a twinkle of amusement and wary friendliness in his voice. "Senior Sergeant Gógol'a, Sergeant Lébed'a, I'm Lieutenant-Commander Kawamoto Masao, the combat officer of His Imperial Majesty's Ship _Yonaga_. Admiral Fujita's cabin is this way." He waved them down the corridor. "Return to your duties, Tomohisa-san."

"Hai!" Fujisaki said as he bowed to the commander.

Maria and Ekaterina bowed to him in return, which made the seaman's cheeks turn a faint cherry at their show of respect. He returned their bow, and then stepped back into the elevator. Watching this, Kawamoto nodded in approval as he waved the police officers to a door guarded by two seamen guards, both standing at attention with their Type 99s at order-arms. One of them bowed as the commander came up, and then opened the door. Kawamoto then paused at the doorway, bowing low. "Our guests, Admiral."

"Bring them in, Masao-san," a familiar voice bade.

Kawamoto waved them inside. Stepping into the room, Maria and Ekaterina stood side by side before they bowed low to the elderly gentleman at the end of the table. "_Továrišč Více-Admirál_ Fujita," Maria greeted for them both. "A good morning to you."

"And to you as well, Senior Sergeant Gógol'a, Sergeant Lébed'a," the elderly man at the end of the table said as he bowed his head in acknowledgement. "Please, sit down and be comfortable, ladies. Did both of you given something to eat?"

Maria and Ekaterina smiled as they sat down at the other end of the table as Kawamoto moved to take his place to Fujita Hiroshi's left, next to the admiral's senior aide and scribe, Lieutenant-Commander Katsube Hakuseki. Seated to Fujita's left was the ship's commanding officer, Captain Ogawa Gorō, executive officer Commander Hirata Satoru and air group leader Commander Shimizu Masao. Also present was a second-class seaman by the bank of old telephones that no doubt connected this room to the bridge and other vital areas of the ship . . . and one of the seaman guards who had been in the passageway outside the cabin, who had come in after Kawamoto. "We had the great pleasure of meeting your ship's chief hospital orderly, _Glávnyj-staršiná_ Horiguchi Eiichi, shortly after we were escorted aboard, Comrade Admiral," Ekaterina answered. "He gave us a quite delightful sample of maguro-sashimi, azarashi and nori no tempura. All made aboard the ship in your galleys, so we were told by him." She smiled. "Our complements to your fine culinary staff for making the meal quite interesting even if we never had raw tuna fish, walrus meat and batter-fried seaweed before." That made both Ogawa and Hirata turn a fine shade of red at her complement. "That you all survived in that cove for seventy years and were able to stay fed and in good shape speaks well of a lot of things. Your personal training and devotion being one of the primary ones."

"You complement us, Sergeant," Kawamoto stated.

"I speak the truth, _Továrišč Kapitán-lejtenánt_," she replied.

Now the combat officer was blushing. "You are Avalonians?" Fujita asked.

Silence.

"You know of us?" Maria wondered.

"Yes, we do. Even if we were trapped in Sano-wan – that is our name for the cove you found us in – our radios were still able to receive both short-wave and AM frequencies from all over the Northern Hemisphere." The admiral sighed. "While there were things we found impossible to believe, there were other things that fascinated us quite greatly. And may help explain to us certain phenomena we've experienced, especially in the last year or so." His almost black eyes then narrowed as he peered intently at them. "So what are you exactly? Terran-turned or Terran-form?"

"We are both Terran-form," Maria stated as she sensed the need for the admiral – not to mention all the other men on this great ship – to reach out and touch, both in body and soul, people like herself. To reconnect finally to the world they had been literally cut off from since 1941. "We were both created at the orders of a man who was quite fascinated by the history of the _Rodina_, especially when it came to her sons and daughters fighting off the _fašistskie bandity_ that invaded from Germany the year you were trapped in that cove . . . " She paused. "You call it 'Sano Bay?'"

"Yes. After Colonel Sano Akira, the officer who discovered it for us."

"And because of its relative isolation back in the 1940s, it was a perfect place to hide such a beautiful ship and her crew . . . even if intruding on the sovereign territory of the-then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, a nation you were then technically at peace with, would be seen as an overt act of war," Ekaterina said.

Hearing that, the Japanese blinked, clearly all taken aback by the total lack of emotion in the sergeant's voice. Russians, they all knew, could become quite passionate beyond reason when it came to defending their motherland from invasion; the brutal response to the German invasion of 1941 attested well to that. "Don't you see yourself as Russian now, Sergeant?" Fujita then asked. "You possess a Russian name . . . "

"And I was adopted by a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, as was Maria here," Ekaterina finished for him, waving to her co-worker. "But we term ourselves as 'Avalonian-Russians,' as our counterparts in your homeland would call themselves 'Avalonian-Japanese.' Yes, we live in individual countries and acknowledge the laws of the land in the countries we reside in. But we are all of shared blood and origin, regardless if we are Terran-form, Terran-turned or Terran-adopted."

Katsube, who appeared as old as Fujita and was showing the initial signs of arthritis in his hands, paused as he looked up. "'Terran-adopted?'"

"Those who are made Avalonians through the injection of regenerative enzyme cells into their blood stream," Maria explained for the scribe. "This is how we can allow men to become Avalonians as the factory is programmed to create only women."

"That being because the builders of the factory held within their creation myths that it was a woman – the 'first mother,' she was called – that was the first humanoid that appeared on . . . Sagussa, was it?" Shimizu asked. At the visiting police officers' nods, he then sighed. "Because of that, the whole concept behind the Avalon Project was to see if a society that wasn't ruled by natural birthing processes could be developed."

Maria smiled. "You know much, _Továrišč__ Kapitán_," she noted.

Shimizu blushed. "As the admiral just stated, we were monitoring radio signals even if we have always obeyed total radio silence in return," he then explained, trying not to fluster too much at the soft kindness in the woman's words.

"That's enough, Masao-san."

The air group commander blinked, and then he bowed his head to Fujita. "Hai."

Fujita smiled, and then he turned to gaze intently at the two women. "So who are your fathers – your adopted fathers – anyway, ladies?"

"My adopted father is _Staršij-seržánt_ Pável Petróvič Gógol', formerly of the Iron and Steel Regiment of Magnitogórsk," Maria answered. "He was a sniper."

That made most of the Japanese officers shudder; both Avalonian-Russians were quick to sense their disapproval at such a trade. "Yes, your people did use many snipers during that conflict. Men and women alike," Fujita stated; he clearly hadn't been bothered by that revelation. "How many kills in the end?"

She smiled. "Truthfully, Comrade Admiral, he lost count. But he kept track of those he knew he did kill on the butt stock of his Vintovka Mosina Model 1891/31 rifle, which he was allowed to keep after the war." Maria sighed. "Papa was lucky; unlike many of his comrades who went on the long walk to Berlin, he wasn't viewed with suspicion by the authorities when he finally returned home, and then he moved to his cabin near Ust'-Ilímsk to live with his then-fiancée, whom he met in Magnitogórsk." She smirked. "I take it you all heard about the gold that was discovered by his home."

Fujita laughed as the other officers chuckled. "We did! Is it true that your father – when he kills the wolves and bears in the forest to protect his reindeer flock – actually skins the pelts and allows them to be washed with gold fragments in the river that flows by his cabin?"

"He does!"

More laughter. "What of your father, Sergeant Lébed'a?" Ogawa asked.

"_Mládsij-lejtenánt_ Vasílij Aleksándróvič Lébed'," Ekaterina replied. "He was a attack pilot with the 805th Attack Aviation Regiment. He flew the Il'júšin Il-2."

That made Shimizu perk. "The so-called 'flying tank,' correct?"

"_Da_! Not as nimble or as fast as the lovely fighters you have aboard this ship, _Továrišč Kapitán_, but quite proficient at the job it was designed to do."

"Which it did quite well," Fujita stated, and then he sighed. "I knew the alliance with Germany was a stupid idea," he then lamented before perking. "Is it true?"

"What is?" Maria asked.

"The _HaShoah_? The 'Holocaust' as it is called."

Silence fell, and then Maria sighed. "_Da_, it's true. Papa allowed me to 'see' his memories when he and his regiment helped liberate Auschwitz." A mirthless smirk then crossed her face. "He took great joy in killing Germans after he saw what happened there."

The officers there considered that, and then Ogawa sighed. "If we only were strong enough to put the idiots in the Army down back in the 1930s . . . "

"Enough, Gorō-san," Fujita stated. "What's happened has happened and cannot be changed." He sighed, and then he focused his dark eyes again on the two Russian police officers. "What was your mission when you came to Arakamčečen Island?"

"A detailed survey of the island using Avalonian technology so that when the eco-tourists come by and they get lost, we can find them," Ekaterina stated.

"'Eco-tourists?'" Katsube asked.

"Tree-huggers, _Továrišč Kapitán-lejtenánt_," Maria explained. "Ecological tourists. People who are attracted to nature and wish to experience it personally. Get away from the smoggy and filthy cities and breathe clean air, swim in clean waters, experience all facets of what the world had to offer before man's technology and all the ugly after-effects of its introduction into society worldwide changes it forever."

"We've seen such people come to Arakamčečen before, especially in the last two decades," Fujita stated. "They never came close to Sano-wan, but they were there. It amazed me that none of them spotted _Yonaga_ from their airplanes and autogyros . . . " He paused. "Ah! Helicopters, I mean! Given the size of the ship . . . "

Both Avalonians nodded. "That surprised us as well, Comrade Admiral," Ekaterina stated. "Air and satellite surveys of the island didn't detect your ship, much less the bay she was trapped in. And while I'm sure you're all relieved that you were never spotted – especially by the military – there should have been traces of your presence there. Did you contact the local natives when you went out to fish or whale?"

"Many times," Ogawa stated. "Give our physical similarities to the Čukči who live in the area of Arakamčečen – several of us did learn the local language – it was quite easy to trade foodstuffs and other goods with them. It's a miracle that none of them passed on our existence to elements of the NKVD or its successor organisations."

Maria and Ekaterina nodded. "Very interesting . . . " the former stated. "A pity neither of us had tricorders with us. We could have scanned the whole ship to get a reading of the environmental conditions you were exposed to in Sano Bay . . . "

"'Tricorder?'" Shimizu asked.

"A portable scanner unit – its official name is 'field utility multi-purpose environmental scanner, tactical' – that would allow us to look at everything from a person's physical medical condition to the surrounding biosphere," Ekaterina explained. "Unfortunately, such units haven't been passed on to the police yet."

"But several of our sisters employed with various technological analysis groups in Russia and elsewhere are working very hard to see them introduced," Maria added.

The officers nodded. "You know of our mission, do you not?" Fujita then asked.

Both women nodded. "You're going to Pearl Harbour. Clearly, you were meant to be part of the carrier force that struck that base on Monday 8 December 1941; Sunday 7 December in the American calendar," Maria explained. "You were trapped in Sano-wan in September of 1941; Comrade Seaman Fujisaki told us. This is an aircraft carrier. A rather large one, though we don't have any real knowledge about _Yonaga_'s true capabilities. Logic dictates you were either a tactical back-up unit for the main force – meant to sweep in after the other carriers' air wings did their jobs – or part of the main force."

The old admiral nodded, an admiring smile crossing his face. "Wise deduction, Senior Sergeant. This ship – which has the capabilities of two of any of the other carriers assigned to the _Kido Butai_, the Mobile Force of the First Air Fleet – was technically assigned as the 6th Carrier Division of that force even if she was not administratively commissioned into the Navy. We were ordered to be part of the main force, but given _Yonaga_'s size . . . " – he waved around him to indicate the great vessel they now stood on – " . . . the Navy high command felt there was no choice but to hide her somewhere where foreign spies couldn't see her, much less guess her true power. That is why she was never officially welcomed into the Navy; administratively, we were part of Unit 731 of the Imperial Army. Are you aware of that particular unit?"

"Your biological- and chemical-warfare unit," Ekaterina replied, again catching her hosts by surprise with her calm dissertation of the facts. "Based in Píngfáng District near Hā'ěrbīn in Manchuria between 1935 and 1945, when the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation was launched." She sighed. "My father flew as part of the Second Far Eastern Front that advanced all the way into Korea; he volunteered to serve there even if he was qualified to be demobilised after his service in Europe."

"Then the war is still on between our peoples," Fujita noted.

"No. That was ultimately resolved at the turn of the New Year this year between Tōkyō and Moskvá. The southern islands in the Kuríl chain – you know them as Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai Islands; which your people have never recognised as being part of the Kuríl Islands – were fully returned back to your country's control as it had been originally agreed to in the Treaty of Shimoda in 1855."

"Still, it's impossible!" Ogawa snapped.

"Why do you say that?" Ekaterina asked.

"The Emperor would never surrender!"

Maria sighed. Now they had come to the crux of the situation. "_Továrišč Kapitán_ Ogawa, I realise the concept of surrendering to an enemy – especially an enemy like the Soviet Union under Stalin, which your people no doubt viewed as the Devil Himself when Iosif Vissarionovič was still alive and running rampant over all of Eurasia – is a thoroughly loathsome concept to you and your comrades. That is why you are proceeding now to attack Hawai'i even if it has been seventy years since your brave comrades in the First Air Fleet struck Pearl to initiate your side of the Great Patriotic War. I understand that even if I personally can't comprehend why you would all gladly follow those orders when the situation of the outside world obviously has changed so much. You can't accept the idea of your own head-of-state actually ordering his soldiers to lay down their arms and cease military action in 1945 . . . yet you gladly accept both Katja and I for what we are." She shrugged. "I am not asking you to do any favours for either of us. I have no right to ask that of you, especially after what you all obviously have experienced these last seventy years in that place. But please, don't lie to yourselves. Even if you all are prepared to face the Final Mystery of the _Te'a_ as you were all trained to do, Japan – _Nyet_! The WORLD! – has need of people like yourselves! You know of what happened last summer, don't you?"

"The mission by the so-called 'United Nations Earth Defence Force' to this Yaminokuni planet," Kawamoto stated.

"_Da_! Your nation's space battleship in the Earth Defence Force, the _Yamato_, was part of that expedition. The crew of that ship conducted themselves quite honourably in that mission and returned back home whole and alive. _Yamato_ was also involved in searching for the Canadian starship _Haida_ when that accident with the Staff of Gihan sent her into another universe near the turn of the year. What of the rescue efforts after the earthquake and tidal wave that struck the northern part of your homeland back in March? _Yamato_'s crew made damn sure the nuclear reactors that were damaged in that event were removed and tossed into the Sun before they could cause anyone any harm." Maria then smiled. "And believe it or not, your nation will soon commission a space _aircraft carrier_ to join _Yamato_ and the frigate that was assigned to your navy – forgive me, I don't recall the name – in helping protect all of Earth from alien invasion."

Silence.

"An _aircraft carrier_?" Shimizu eeped.

"_Da_, _Továrišč Kapitán_ Shimizu," Maria stated. "Just like Russia will soon commission the _Mixaíl V. Lomonósov_ and the Americans will soon commission their new _Enterprise_." She blinked on sensing cauldrons of anger and resentment on her speaking that ship's name. _I need to learn the history of what happened between the Japanese and the Americans during the Great Patriotic War_, she mused as she took a deep breath. "I apologise, _Továrišči_. I had no desire to make you think of bad things."

Hearing that, the officers all blinked as the cheeks of several of them started to redden on their sensing the sincerity the young police officer was showing them.

"What would you suggest we do then?"

Silence.

"Admiral . . .!" Katsube gasped as everyone stared wide-eyed at Fujita.

"Do not mistake my asking that as deciding to disobey the orders given to us by Admiral Yamamoto to participate in Operation Z, Hakuseki-san," the admiral stated as he gave his scribe a light smile and held up his hand in a show of reassurance. "But both the senior sergeant and the sergeant have made interesting points. We honestly didn't know of the return of the Northern Territories to Japanese control even if we monitor NHK directly on both shortwave and AM frequencies. Besides, neither of them would have reason to lie about such things." As the others considered that before nodding in understanding, the old sailor rose from his chair and walked over to the porthole to gaze on the starry night that had cloaked _Yonaga_ as soon as she had entered the deeper waters of the Bering Sea after passing the narrowest part of the channel between Cape Čaplino on the Siberian mainland and Northwest Cape on Saint Lawrence Island. _A miracle that no one saw us_, he mused to himself. _The village of Gambell is located right on the shoreline of the island south of Northwest Cape. We saw the lights; we were only thirty kilometres away. Is the lighthouse there manned . . .?_

"Comrade Admiral . . .?"

He perked, and then he gazed on Maria. "Are there Avalonian-Americans living on Saint Lawrence Island? Or possibly on Saint Matthew Island?"

"There are two of our American sisters serving as special officers of the Alaska State Troopers currently based at Savoonga on Saint Lawrence," Maria reported. "Saint Matthew is totally uninhabited. Next island after that will be Attu, I believe. If you'll wish to keep as far away from American land as possible."

"And what is there?" Fujita asked.

"An abandoned American Coast Guard LORAN station."

"What is that?" Ogawa asked.

"It's an acronym, Comrade Captain. It means 'Long Range Navigation.' It's a radio transmitter unit that allows ships to triangulate where they are by determining their bearing and distance between individual signal units," Ekaterina stated. "I haven't learned when it first came out, but now that there are multiple satellite navigation aid systems such as the Americans' Global Positioning System and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System, the whole LORAN network will go off-line soon. The station at Attu Island was formally closed down on the first of August last year; I don't know if there's anyone on the island now."

"We will watch out for it anyway. The American Coast Guard is a section of their new Homeland Security Department, correct?" Fujita wondered. "And has been since the attacks on New York and Washington by this group of bandits from Afghanistan called al-Qā'idah in 2001?"

"_Da_."

A sigh. "Thank you, ladies. Masao-san, would you escort them back to their quarters and let them have a chance to sleep? It's rather late."

Kawamoto nodded. "Hai!"

With that, the seaman guard turned to open the door. Maria and Ekaterina both stood, and then politely bowed to Fujita. "_Spokójnoj Nóči_, _Továrišč Více-Admirál_," the former then said for her and her co-worker. "May your dreams be pleasant ones."

Fujita nodded. "Oyasumi nasai. Yours as well, ladies."

With that, the seaman guard led the two Russian police officers out of the room, the combat officer following. After the other seaman guard still on post in the passageway closed the door behind them, the admiral took a deep breath. "It still doesn't make sense," Ogawa then stated. "If – and I'm not saying this actually happened, of course! – the Son of Heaven surrendered in 1945 as we heard . . .?"

"Why didn't the Americans put the Emperor on trial like they did General Tōjō, Prime Minister Hirota and the others they hanged at Sugamo Prison?" Katsube spat.

"Victor's justice!" Shimizu snarled in disgust.

"Yes, it is," Fujita stated. "Still, I did study in America back when I was a commander during the early Taishō years. It wasn't just to learn English, my friends. It was also to study American culture and society since they were the ones who forced our people out of isolation when Matthew Perry sailed his black ships into Edo Bay back in the seventh year of Kaei." He sighed. "Remember, we did listen in when Chūichi-san led the other carriers in to perform their part of Operation Z. The attack occurred BEFORE the official notice that all negotiations between our homeland and the Americans had come to an end and that war was coming. That wasn't Isoroku-san's intention at all." A shake of the head. "I can only imagine what must have gone through his mind when he realised that . . . "

"'A date which will live in infamy,'" Hirata quoted Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

"Hai, Satoru-san," Fujita breathed out. "American ways and beliefs are not ours . . . but it doesn't mean that they are the savages our friends in the Army liked to portray them as. Yes, there was the rampant racism – dōhō like Yoshi-san could attest loudly to that – and the belief that their way of life was the best way of life for all of mankind, but they have their own sense of right and wrong. That Chūichi-san attacked BEFORE Ambassador Nomura could deliver the note to Secretary Hull . . . " A shake of the head. "Yes, the Americans WOULD view what did happen as a sneak attack . . . and in their odd sense of fair play, which even governs how they fight, that was wrong."

"What do we do?" Ogawa asked. "We have orders, Admiral. They cannot be disobeyed. We would all be better off submitting to our own tantō than do _that_!"

"Hai, Gorō-san, I know . . . I know . . . "

* * *

Tomobiki, the Moroboshi home, that moment (local time: Friday 24 July, after sunset) . . .

"_Yonaga_ . . . is now moving?"

Masatada Hinano shakily nodded her head. "Hai, Hiromi-san. None of us don't know where she was trapped in for all these years . . . but we can sense it. They're on the move. And heading straight for Pearl Harbour right now." She gazed sadly at her host. "They should be ready to launch their attack in about a hundred hours. Present speed of advance is fifty kilometres per hour; about twenty-seven knots."

"And what's _Yonaga_'s top speed?" Asami Chiaki asked.

"She can do thirty-two knots and sustain it for hours, Asami-san," another of the Yonaga no Tenshi, Karamachi Hiroko, answered. Her paternal great-great-granduncle was the missing aircraft carrier's chief gunnery officer, Lieutenant-Commander Atsumi Nobomitsu. "She was built with sixteen Kanpon boilers and six geared turbines that gave her over fifty percent more power than what _Yamato_ and _Musashi_ possessed."

"Where would the launch point be?" Moroboshi Hiromi then wondered.

The crowd in the living room of the guest house – the leaders of the Yonaga no Tenshi were there with the Moroboshi siblings and their friends, not to mention the delegation from the Diet; the others of the Tenshi were currently renting hotel rooms all over Tomobiki to rest up from their hard ride from Hiroshima – quieted down as they considered that question. "Most likely, somewhere on the Čukótskij Peninsula," a familiar flat-toned voice then mused from nearby. "Possibly on the Arctic side. More likely on the Bering Sea side. I cannot say either which way since I was never privy to that ship's development and deployment after she was administratively made part of Unit 731."

Eyes locked on Moroboshi Negako, who was seated by the entranceway to the main hallway connecting the front and back doors of the guest house. Beside her was her live-in lover, the Steel Angel-turned-metahuman bioroid warrior Shichinohe Kaga, who was relaxing and enjoying some late-night tea. "What were you briefed on, Negako-sama?" Yoshimaru Hidekawa then inquired as he sipped his own tea.

"Regretfully, not that much, Hidekawa. I was never concerned with matters dealing with the operations of either the Imperial Army or Navy," Negako answered. "My missions during that war were to ensure anything of an extraordinary nature did not disrupt the war effort. Such as the side-effects of the attempt by Yomigawa Tsukiko – known more commonly as 'Lady Tsukuyomi' – to throw off all influence by the International Confederation of Wizards on Japan and other nations while the wand-magicals of Europe were fighting to suppress Gellert Grindelwald. Only in the wake of Special Missions 13 and 16 flown by the crews of the _Enola Gay_ and the _Bockscar_ against Hiroshima and Nagasaki – as well as the invasion by the Soviet Far East Military District into Manchuria the day prior to Special Mission 16's flight to Nagasaki – did I get involved directly into the affairs of the armed forces. By then, the command team of Unit 731 had evacuated from Píngfáng and Ishii Shirō and his friends were making their way to Japan, one step ahead of Aleksándr Vasilévskij's soldiers. Of course, during the evening before the day Emperor Hirohito's recording of the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War was broadcast, I was quite busy."

Morbid laughter filled the room. During the evening of 14 August 1945 – memorialised in the history books as the "Kyūjō Incident" – elements of the Imperial Army under the leadership of Major Hatanaka Kenji and several peers from the Ministry of War tried to launch a coup d'état and try to force the Shōwa Emperor to refute his acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration made by the Allies three weeks earlier. Unknown to most people in Japan at the time, Hatanaka and his friends had been secretly supported by the Black Dragon Society, the ultranationalist right-wing group that had supported the ascendancy of the militarists that eventually plunged Japan into World War Two. Learning that the Black Dragons were prepared to unleash guerrilla warfare throughout Japan to force the Americans to rescind their unconditional surrender demand and sue for peace on Japan's terms – which, as President Harry Truman warned in the wake of the Hiroshima mission, would unleash "a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth" upon an already ravaged nation – the Emperor summoned the _Saik__ō__ Jinseijutsu_ (then within the body of Moroboshi Ryūbi, great-grandfather to Ataru, Tariko and Hiromi) and ordered her to "ensure peace will finally come to our poor and suffering country."

Within twenty-four hours of that order, all across Japan, six hundred members of the Black Dragons were dead thanks to both the use of the soulsword and the Heart-Blast Touch attack, thus effectively destroying the organisation once and for all time.

Proof of what the Klingons in another reality gladly claimed: _Four thousand throats may be cut in a single night by a running man._

While the Imperial Palace hadn't confirmed Negako's involvement in the darker side of the Kyūjō Incident, the fact that someone known as "Imperial Special Agent 49" had been involved in all those deaths was an open secret across Japan.

And people knew the connection between Imperial Special Agent 49 and the _Saik__ō__ Jinseijutsu_, now living as Moroboshi Negako, adopted older sister of Moroboshi Ataru.

"Could there be any member of Unit 731 still alive today?" Aso Wakana asked.

"There was that one colonel that was mentioned by Kenzō-san's friend," Hiromi then mused. "He's currently in long-term care at Juntendō University Hospital."

"Who?" Negako asked.

"Miura Daisuke-taisa."

The ninjutsu grandmaster nodded. "I will go examine him."

She stood up, causing everyone to gape. "_**Now?**_" Sengoku Shin'ichirō gasped.

Negako gazed at him. "Shin'ichirō, which would you desire? For _Yonaga_ to return home with her crew alive and well . . . or for them to die once they are detected by elements of the American armed forces and attacked ahead of time?" As the young dietman from Hokkaidō flustered on hearing that, Negako turned to Jawna Jalil. "Remain here and assist in keeping watch over everyone, Jawna. Come, Kaga."

The beautiful Libyan girl smiled. "As you desire, Lady Negako."

People gazed quizzically on her for a moment, and then sighed as Negako and Kaga walked out of the guest house. "So after they got free, what then?" Sebone Shikuko asked as she allowed Ataru to hold her close. "If they're coming from the eastern end of Siberia, they'll have to get past the Aleutian Islands before they're in deep water and able to make a direct run on Hawai'i. How much in the way of military forces do the Americans have up in Alaska now?"

Hiromi sighed. "As I was briefed by Admiral Winnefeld when President Obama and Prime Minister Harper agreed to allow NORAD to work hand-in-hand with the Earth Defence Force in local defensive matters, the 3rd Wing at Elmendorf-Richardson outside Anchorage was converted over to F-24s at the start of the year. They've been training in cislunar defence missions since." She then reached over for the dadaPADD that was on the nightstand beside her reclining chair. Tapping a control, she waited for the link from her home to a certain starship in orbit over southern Canada to open.

"_Haida_, Anderson here."

"Ah, Michelle-san. Could you open a link with the NORAD people at Elmendorf-Richardson, please?"

Lieutenant-Commander Michelle Anderson blinked. "Something wrong?"

"Something that I require the good people of the 3rd Space Fighter Wing to go look for within the next few hours, Michelle-san," the reborn emperor said.

A nod; Michelle knew Hiromi enough that if something required the specific help of _Haida_, they would be briefed on it right away. "Right away, Director."

The image of _Haida_'s navigator disappeared. Silence fell over the scene for a moment before the image of a smiling American air force senior sergeant at his desk appeared on the PADD screen. "Alaskan NORAD Region Operations Control Center, Senior Master Sergeant Cashman here. How can I help you tonight, Director?"

"Good evening . . . oh! It's morning over there in the noble Last Frontier, Senior Master Sergeant!" Hiromi stated as she covered her mouth with her hand to hide her embarrassed look, which didn't work. "I trust all is well this evening?"

"It seems normal, ma'am," David Cashman stated, clearly surprised that he was now speaking to his operational super-national civilian boss directly. "Save for an unusual situation across the Bering Strait right now. Two Avalonian-Russian police officers from Providénija went missing and their station commander screamed up to one of the pilots from the 46th Space Fighter Regiment to go down to scout around Ytygran and Arakamčečen Islands – they're off the eastern edge of the Čukótskij Peninsula in Siberia – to see what happened. Two CSF-148s from the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry are flying top cover for the ladies from the 46th right now." He then blinked. "Are you okay, Director?"

"A moment, please," a now-pale Hiromi said. "Someone get me an . . .!"

She then jolted as a book was handed to her. "Atlas?" her sister Tariko teased.

A sigh. "Onē-san!" the reborn emperor hissed before she took the atlas in hand and began scanning the contents. "The Čukótskij Peninsula . . . ah! There we are!" she said. "Senior Master Sergeant, where exactly would Ytygran and Arakamčečen be?"

"Look for Cape Dežnëva, ma'am; that's the eastern-most tip of Siberia," the American air force space systems operations supervisor instructed. "Head southwest to Cape Čaplino; that's the southeast corner of that part of the peninsula. Arakamčečen is a triangular-shaped island just northeast of Čaplino. Ytygran would be right beside it."

The director nodded. "I see it, sir . . . "

Her finger traced a course away from that region on a map of the North Pacific Ocean basin, following the International Date Line to the line of the Aleutian Islands that curved from Alaska's southwest coast to the Kamčátka Peninsula of Russia. From there, her finger turned southeast to head right to the 180th meridian just south of Semisopochnoi Island, just east of Kiska Island. From there, it was a straight run south to around the level of Midway Island. And from there, east-southeast to Hawai'i.

"Oh, my . . . "

"Ma'am?"

Hiromi sighed. "Which squadron has the ready duty at your base?"

Cashman tensed, and then he answered, "Bulldogs, ma'am. The 525th Squadron."

"I need to speak to the duty officer now."

"Yes, ma'am!"

He tapped controls. The PADD's screen then split into two sections, the one to Hiromi's right revealing a smiling woman with captain's bars on her shoulders, her body draped with a flight suit and her name on a leather patch over her right breast. "Five-two-five Squadron Ops, Captain Rogers . . . OH! Director Moroboshi!"

"Good morning, Captain Rogers. Do you have aircraft currently flying now?"

Captain Elisabeth Rogers nodded. "Yes, ma'am! Two F-24s should be inbound from Sector 16 right now; they're due to land . . . " Her eyes flicked over to her right. "In about an hour or so; they'll be passing Mars' orbit now according to the flight plan."

"Could they do a quick reconnaissance of the International Date Line between Arakamčečen Island in Siberia and the Aleutian Islands chain before going in to land?"

The captain nodded. "Easily enough, Director. Why?"

A sigh. "Captain Rogers, what I'm about to tell you will sound totally insane, but be assured . . . it is true," the reborn emperor stated, ignorning the fact that Senior Master Sergeant Cashman was listening in. "There is proof positive that a vessel of the Imperial Japanese Navy – a Yamato-class battleship turned into an aircraft carrier like the _Shinano_ was – which has been trapped in the area of Arakamčečen Island for the last seventy years has broken free of her confinement and is now deploying on a mission her crew was ordered to carry out by Fleet Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku himself sometime in the late summer of 1941. A mission she was – thanks to some sort of earthquake – denied the chance to engage in. Unlike six other carriers of the Imperial Navy, then under the commander of Vice-Admiral Nagumo Chūichi."

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

And then . . .

"You mean . . . stragglers from World War Two?" a stunned Captain Rogers gasped. "An _aircraft carrier_ full of them? And they're heading to _Pearl Harbour_?"

"That is correct, Captain. Hard as it is to believe, it is correct," Hiromi stated. "The secrecy around this vessel – her name is _Yonaga_, by the way – was much more thorough than what was employed with her sisterships _Yamato_, _Musashi_ and _Shinano_."

The Air Force captain took a moment to consider that. "And given that they probably never heard the Shōwa Emperor's orders to stand down in 1945 – or if they did, they probably wouldn't believe it! – they might think the war's still on . . . "

"They would still be able to receive radio messages, Onē-san."

That was Ki Tsukihana, who had been called down from _Haida_ to attend the first meeting between the reborn emperor of the Latter Hàn Dynasty and the Angels of the Era of Eternity. He was currently busy scanning the aged sheets of paper that contained all of _Yonaga_'s deck and equipment plans, brought to him by Hayasaka Airi, the only member of the Yonaga no Tenshi to be a serving officer in the Self-Defence Forces; she was currently a junior grade lieutenant in the Maritime Self-Defence Forces assigned to the Yokosuka Naval Base as an information systems engineering manager, now assigned to the task group that would help train new officers in the equipment of the _Yamato_, the _K__ō__tetsu_ and the soon-to-commission new _Yonaga_. "How soon will those scans be done, Kōgetsuei-dono?" the reborn emperor asked of the young genius from Chichibu.

"A half-hour, My Emperor?" Tsukihana requested.

Hiromi nodded. "Be swift about it. We'll beam a 3D image of _Yonaga_ to you in a half-hour, Captain," she then said as she gazed on the image of the American air force pilot.

"Yes, ma'am," Rogers replied with a nod . . .

* * *

Approaching Earth, an hour later . . .

"Are you SHITTING me, Liz?"

"This is no bullshit, Donna," Elisabeth Rogers replied as she gazed onto the image of the lead Ghostrider pilot as she and her wingman began their descent to penetrate the atmosphere over the North Pacific Ocean southwest of Anchorage. Already, the area around the two F-24s was aglow with heat energy as the two stealth space fighters slipped through the mesosphere eighty-five kilometres over the surface. "An honest-to-goodness Imperial Japanese _aircraft carrier_ – and this sum-bitch is as big as a friggin' Nimitz! – that was trapped in a cove on Arakamčečen Island for the last seventy years! And they were supposed to be in on the Pearl Harbour strike in '41!"

Staring at her friend, Major Donna Koch could only gape. An African-American from South Boston, she was a flight commander in the 525th Fighter Squadron and one of the first women fighter pilots to qualify on the Lockheed-Martin F-22 Raptor when they were put into service in 2005. The daughter of a deceased Grumman F-14 Tomcat pilot who had flown with the Navy's Fighter Squadron 33 (the Starfighters) off U.S.S. _America_ during Operation: Desert Storm in 1991, Donna had been refused entry into the Navy when she had graduated from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth two years after Commander James Koch had been shot down over Baġdād. The Air Force had been more than willing to welcome the determined physics undergraduate as a pilot into their service; she would qualify on the F-15E Strike Eagle in 1997 and did three tours of duty in the Middle East in support of Operation: Iraqi Freedom and Operation: Enduring Freedom flying as part of the 336th Fighter Squadron (the Rocketeers) from still-classified locations in central and southwest Asia. After her third tour ended four years ago, she accepted assignment to the Bulldogs at Elmendorf-Richardson to take a break from combat flying, thus getting the chance to learn how to fly the new F-22 Raptor within a year of its introduction to the 525th.

Luck stayed with her when the 525th was marked as one of the first squadrons in the United States Air Force to convert to the F-24 Ghostrider space stealth fighter (which had been "adopted" by Northrop Grumman when it officially came into service).

And now . . .

"Liz, I'm not saying you or the Director are lying, but think about it, huh?" Donna then stated. "It's been SIXTY-SIX YEARS since Japan threw in the towel in that stupid war. SEVENTY years this December since they hit Pearl in the first place! If that ship IS active – and I'm just wondering HOW that could have happened! – she'd be crewed by a bunch of very old men, even the junior-most pilots! How do they HOPE to launch an attack on Pearl if they're too old to get into the cockpits of their Zekes, Vals and Kates?"

Elisabeth breathed out. "I find it impossible, too . . . but the Director's never once steered anyone wrong since she was put in charge of our space fleet back last winter, Donna. Besides, look what everyone's had to deal with since the Yaminokuni trip? A voyage to the _Star Trek_ dimension of all things . . .!"

A nod. "Yeah, yeah, I hear you. So do we have proof positive that this thing launched from Arakamčečen? Were the girls in the Night Maidens told about this?"

"We're liaising with Elizovo right now," the captain replied. "Ira Sergejeva of the 587th got the call from the Providénskij District Police about two missing police officers that were in the area when this _Yonaga_ might have made her break-out. And given that the girls of this Yonaga no Tenshi bike gang are all Avalonians . . . "

"They dreamt of their relatives, you mean?"

A nod. "Yeah."

Donna sighed. She was a Terran-form-Avalonian now, as were her weapon systems officer, wingmate and her WSO. "Alright, that sounds pretty substantial to me. Can you warn the girls from the 587th that we'll be poking around the area between Čaplino and Médnyj to find this ghost carrier? I don't want to deal with a bunch of angry guys flying Fulcrums or Flankers after us because we're straying over the Date Line."

"Roger that, Maj- . . .! Wait! Getting a call!"

The screen went blank for a moment, displaying the 525th Space Fighter Squadron's battling bulldog mascot insignia. Seconds later – just as the heated air around Donna's F-24 finally faded to reveal the dark skies over the Gulf of Alaska – the screen came back on again, revealing a smiling red-haired woman with brown eyes in the uniform of a pilot senior sergeant in the Russian Air Force. "_Dóbroje Útro_, Donna Jákovovna!" Irina Sergejeva called out. Donna was quick to see that the Russian pilot senior sergeant was on the ground somewhere. "You were assigned by Hiromi Muchiovna to help go find our missing Great Patriotic War Japanese aircraft carrier, _da_?"

"_Da_, Irina Vjačeslavovna," Donna called back; even if she was a major and the Russian was a senior sergeant, they were sister fighter pilots and part of a growing sorority of female Terran-turned-Avalonian jet jockeys dedicated to the protection of their homeworld from all comers. "Where the hell are you, girl? On the ground somewhere?"

"Arakamčečen Island, the southwest side," Irina answered. "You wouldn't BEGIN to believe what we just found down here, Donna! A cove big enough to take in a damned SUPERTAKER with room to spare . . . and there's evidence everywhere that some ship WAS here for quite some time before the glaciers that are on this part of the island collapsed thanks to that quake yesterday in the Fox Islands!" She smirked. "That proves it. The _Yonaga_ is still afloat . . . and she's heading for Hawai'i now."

Donna sighed. "Damn . . . "

"There's something else."

"Dear God! What?"

"There's a STEAM VENT here, Donna! Right at the inner end of the cove! And right now, it's got all sorts of metal pipes connecting to it that lead straight into the water of the cove! No doubt, _Yonaga_'s crew tapped into the vent to help give them power!" A shake of the head. "I've already passed this up to the _Ušakóv_ to get the engineers down here to look at this place! My God, to believe they were trapped here for SEVENTY YEARS . . .?" She spat out. "To believe no one found her . . .!"

"Ira!"

Irina looked over. "What is it, Daša?"

Another woman – Irina's weapons controller, _Efrèjtor_ Dar'ja Pëtrovna Korovina, Donna was quick to recognise – came up to her, holding a tricorder. "Look at this, Ira," the younger woman then said as she pointed to the screen of her device.

Irina looked . . . and then her jaw dropped. "_Bože moj_!"

"What is it?" Donna wondered.

Irina took a deep breath. "A deposit of _diamond meson_, Major," she stated. "Enough of it to create two dozen _**Power Jewels**_ like Comrade Major Deannetta Daniílovna Raeburn has!"

Hearing that, the American air force major breathed out. "THAT'S how they survived! AND stayed hidden from outside view! The meson probably kept them young and screened their presence from outside view!" She then closed her eyes. "Raye?"

"Yeah, Boss?" her weapon systems officer, Lieutenant Raye Adair, called back.

"Set the scanners to sniff out a high source of meson radiation," the major ordered. "Did you get what Ira just passed over, Sally?"

"I got it, Donna!" her wingman, Captain Sally Penn, called back.

"Let's go find us a flattop!"

"Roger that, Major!"

And with that, the two Ghostriders started to climb back up as they banked off to their right for a wide-circle approach to the southern end of the Bering Sea . . .

_**To be continued . . .**_

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES:**

1) The rank levels of the Imperial Japanese Navy (in 1941), with parallel rank structure of the Russian Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy (in both English and French) along with NATO rank codes:

_**OFFICERS**_  
**OF-10**: JA - _Kaigun Gensui_ (Fleet Admiral); RU - _Admirál Flóta_ (Fleet Admiral); CA - No equivalent  
**OF-9**: JA - _Kaigun Taishō_ (Admiral); RU - _Admirál_ (Admiral); CA - Admiral/_Amiral_  
**OF-8**: JA - _Kaigun Chūjō_ (Vice-Admiral); RU - _Více-Admirál_ (Vice-Admiral); CA - Vice-Admiral/_Vice-amiral_  
**OF-7**: JA - _Kaigun Shōshō_ (Rear Admiral); RU - _Kóntr-admirál_ (Counter-Admiral); CA - Rear Admiral/_Contre-amiral_  
**OF-6**: JA - no equivalent; RU - _Kapitán Pérvyjgo Ránga_ (Captain First Rank); CA - Commodore/_Commodore_  
**OF-5**: JA - _Kaigun Daisa_ (Captain); RU - _Kapitán Vtorójro Ránga_ (Captain Second Rank); CA - Captain (Navy)/_Capitaine de vaisseau_  
**OF-4**: JA - _Kaigun Chūsa_ (Commander); RU - _Kapitán Trétijgo Ránga_ (Captain Third Rank); CA - Commander/_Capitaine de frégate_  
**OF-3**: JA - _Kaigun Shōsa_ (Lieutenant-Commander); RU - _Kapitán-Lejtenánt_ (Captain-Lieutenant); CA - Lieutenant-Commander/_Capitaine de corvette_  
**OF-2**: JA - _Kaigun Daii_ (Lieutenant); RU - _Stáršij Lejtenánt_ (Senior Lieutenant); CA - Lieutenant (Navy)/_Lieutenant de vaisseau_  
**OF-1 (Upper)**: JA - _Kaigun Chūi_ (Sub-Lieutenant); RU - _Lejtenánt_ (Lieutenant); CA - Sub-Lieutenant/_Enseigne de vaisseau de première classe_  
**OF-1 (Lower)**: JA - _Kaigun Shōi_ (Ensign); RU - _Mládsij Lejtenánt_ (Junior Lieutenant); CA - Acting Sub-Lieutenant/_Enseigne de vaisseau de deuxième classe_  
**OF-D**: JA - _Kaigun Jun'i_ (Warrant Officer); RU - _Stáršij Mičman_ (Senior Midshipman); CA - no equivalent  
**STUDENT OFFICER**: JA - _Kaigun Shōi Kōhōsei_ (Midshipman); RU - _Mičman_ (Midshipman); CA - Naval Cadet/_Aspirant de marine_

**_ENLISTED/NON-COMMISSIONED RANKS_**  
**OR-9**: JA - _Ittōheisō_ (Petty Officer 1st Class); RU - _Glávnyj Korabél'nyj Staršiná_ (Ship's Chief Petty Officer); CA - Chief Petty Officer 1st Class/_Premier maître de première classe_  
**OR-8**: JA - _Nitōheisō_ (Petty Officer 2nd Class); RU - _Glávnyj Staršiná_ (Chief Petty Officer); CA - Chief Petty Officer 2nd Class/_Premier maître de deuxième classe_  
**OR-7**: JA - _Santōheisō_ (Petty Officer 3rd Class); RU - _Staršiná Pérvyjj Stat'i_ (Petty Officer 1st Class); CA - Petty Officer 1st Class/_Maître de première classe_  
**OR-6**: JA - no equivalent; RU - _Staršiná Vtorójj Stat'i_ (Petty Officer 2nd Class); CA - Petty Officer 2nd Class/_Maître de deuxième classe_  
**OR-5**: JA - no equivalent; RU - no equivalent; CA - Master Seaman/_Matelot-chef_  
**OR-4**: JA - _Ittōsuihei_ (Sailor 1st Class); RU - _Stáršij Matrós_ (Senior Seaman); CA - Leading Seaman/_Matelot de première classe_  
**OR-3**: JA - _Nitōsuihei_ (Sailor 2nd Class); RU - _Matrós_ (Seaman); CA - Able Seaman/_Matelot de deuxième classe_  
**OR-2**: JA - _Santōsuihei_ (Sailor 3rd Class); RU - no equivalent; CA - Ordinary Seaman/_Matelot de troixième classe_  
**OR-1**: JA - _Yontōsuihei_ (Sailor 4th Class); RU - no equivalent; CA - Ordinary Seaman (Recruit)/_Matelot de troixième classe (recrue)_

2) Rifle notes: In Japan, the **Type 99** rifle (known more commonly as the **Arisaka**) was the standard bolt-action rifle of the Imperial Army and Navy before and during World War Two (chambered for a 7.7 x 58 millimetre round and could carry five rounds in an internal box magazine fed via stripper clips); in Russia, the **Vintovka Mosina Model 1891/31** rifle (known in English as the **Mosin-Nagant**) was the standard sniper rifle used by people such as Pável Gógol' (chambered for a 7.62 x 54 millimetre round and could carry five rounds in an internal box magazine fed individually or via stripper clips).

3) In reading over Mr. Albano's books, there do come occasions when I feel that the editors were asleep at the wheel when it came to spelling out words and names in Japanese. One particular case in point was the name of Matsuhara Yoshi's first lover, Kimio (first introduced in the third book of the series, _Return of the Seventh Carrier_ [ISBN 0-8217-2093-7], published in 1987). In the books, her family name is spelled "Urshazawa," which anyone with even a basic understanding of Japanese phonetic structure would realise is _**not**_ a proper name. I therefore would give it the spelling **Urushizawa**. Other such mistakes that appeared will also be corrected.

4) Translations: **Fašistskie bandity** – Fascist bandits; **Staršij-seržánt** – Senior Sergeant (the Army rank); **NKVD** - Initials for _**Narodbyj Komissariat Vnutrennix Del**_ (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs), the 1934-54 version of the KGB; **Spokójnoj Nóči** – Good Night; **Dóbroje Útro** – Good Morning; **Efrèjtor** – Russian way of saying the German "Gefreiter," meaning "exempted" (implying those people who were exempted from sentry duty in the 16th Century) and applied to people who would normally be called "corporals" in the British/American tradition; **Bože moj!** – God help us!

5) Airplane notes: The **Il'júšin Il-2** (known popularly by the Russian word for "storm bird" [**Šturmovik**]) was a specially-designed ground attack aircraft used by the Soviet Army against German armour (I modelled the **Sopwith So-48 Camel II** mentioned in this story somewhat after Il-2); the _Enola Gay_ and the _Bockscar_ were the two **Boeing B-29 Superfortress** bombers that dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima (Special Mission 13) and Nagasaki (Special Mission 16) by the crews of the **509th Composite Group** of the United States Army Air Forces (today the **509th Bomb Wing** of the USAF); the **Zeke** is the Allied reporting name for the **Mitsubushi A6M Zero-sen** fighter; the **Val** is the Allied reporting name for the **Aichi D3A** dive momber; the **Kate** is the Allied reporting name for the **Nakajima B5N** torpedo bomber; the **Fulcrum** is the NATO reporting name for the **Mikojan i Gurevič MiG-29** supersonic fighter aircraft; the **Flanker** is the NATO reporting name for various models of Suxoj-built aircraft (Donna was speaking of the **Suxoj Su-30**, which is known as the "**Flanker-C**" in NATO).

6) The **Northern Territories** (in Japanese, _**Hoppō Ryōdo**_) are a group of several islands close to Hokkaidō's northeast coast which had been claimed by Japan and settled by the time first official contact between that nation and Russia occurred in the mid-nineteenth century. In the **1855 Treaty of Shimoda**, Article 2 clearly declared that the border between Japan and Russia would fall east of Etorofu Island (west of Urúp Island). In the **1875 Treaty of Saint-Petersburg**, Russia and Japan exchanged all legal rights between all the **Kuríl Islands** (which went to Japan) and **Saxalin Island** (which went to Russia); prior to that, Saxalin was shared between both countries. After the **Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)**, Saxalin was partitioned in half, the southern part going to Japan. And in 1945, as part of the Manchurian Offensive launched under the command of Marshal of the Soviet Union **Aleksándr M. Vasilévskij** (1895-1977), the whole of the Kuríl Islands (including Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai Islands) as well as southern Saxalin Island were occupied by the Soviet Army. Thanks to ambiguities in the **Yalta Agreement **of 1945, the **Potsdam Declaration** of later that year and the **Treaty of San Francisco (1951)** which formally ended the war between Japan and America, Japan has claimed that Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai Islands – as they were NOT considered part of the Kuríl Islands in the 1855 Treaty of Shimoda! – are legally Japanese territory (which is backed up by the earlier **Cairo Declaration** of 1943, which stated that "Japan will also be expelled from all other territories which she has taken by violence and greed"). Due to Cold War politics, any deals between Japan and the Soviet Union concerning the Northern Territories were subjected to American interference, which basically delayed any final agreement about these islands to well after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In the universe of this story, with the idea of settling other planets effectively overriding local defence and economic arguments concerning the return of the Northern Territories to Japan, a final agreement between the two nations restoring Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai Islands to Tōkyō's control was made on New Year's Day 2011.

7) Ship name notes: The **Russian Federation Starship** _**Mixaíl V. Lomonósov**_ (pendant number **SCV-711**) is named in tribute to **Mixaíl Vasíl'evič Lomonósov** (1711-65). A true Renaissance Man, Lomonósov was a polymath (a person who has learned many different subjects), a scientist and a poet; he was the man who first discovered the atmosphere of Venus and he also wrote poetry which served as the literal foundation of the modern Russian language. No ship in either Russian or Soviet service was ever named after him, so I felt it would be only right to bestow his name on the largest ship of the Russian part of the Earth Defence Force.

8) The **seventh year of Kaei** is the year 1854 C.E.

9) The character of **Yomigawa Tsukiko** (**Lady Tsukuyomi**) was first mentioned in _The Icemaidens and the Philosopher's Stone_ as a Far East equivalent to Gellert Grindelwald. As mentioned in Part 26 of that story, Tsukuyomi was believed to have been killed in the Nagasaki atomic bombing of 9 August 1945. Her group was addressed as the _Onogoro no Shigansha_ (the "Volunteers of Onogoro" or "Onogoro Order"), named after the mythical island created by the First Divine Couple, **Izanagi** and **Izanami**, who – as written in the _Kojiki_ (the "Records of Ancient Matters" released in the early Eighth Century C.E. that is said to be the oldest existing chronicle of life in Japan) – used a jewelled spear to stir up the primodial sea and allow Onogoro-shima to be formed from droplets that fell from the spear-tip.


	4. The Iceman and the Halibut Sword

Tōkyō, Bunkyō Ward, Juntendō University Hospital, Saturday 25 July, after midnight . . .

"Normally, we don't allow visitors to come this late in the day . . . "

"I am aware of that, Hiroke. Unfortunately, an element of Daisuke's past has come out of the mists of history and is now on approach to the American naval facility at Pearl Harbour in Hawai'i. The sooner we confirm information concerning how this happened, the sooner innocent lives will be protected from an unexpected attack."

Hearing that explanation from the ninjutsu grandmaster that had come to his ward now to visit the "Iceman" – as his own staff often addressed Colonel Miura Daisuke as – Doctor Toda Hiroke could only blink. "An attack on _Pearl Harbour_?" he demanded. "Why on Earth would something like that hap- . . .?" His voice then trailed off before he stared wide-eyed at Negako. "Gods! You mean there are stragglers . . .?"

"An entire aircraft carrier," Negako explained as she moved to sanitise her hands before entering the isolation room where Miura was currently residing. "A vessel that was administratively made a part of Unit 731 to keep her existence hidden from detection by enemy intelligence forces. And named _Yonaga_ to ensure none could recognise her AS an aircraft carrier should her name have been discovered."

The doctor took that in, and then he gaped. "Oh, my . . . the 'seventh one!'"

"Seventh what?" Kaga asked.

A sigh. "It's something that the colonel always mutters, Kaga-sama. 'It will come from the ice. The seventh one,'" Toda explained. "I know my history. There were six carriers assigned to the _Kido Butai_ on the mission to Hawai'i: _Akagi_, _Kaga_, _Sōryū_, _Hiryū_, _Shōkaku_ and _Zuikaku_. But if there was a _seventh carrier_ . . .?"

"_Yonaga_," Negako confirmed as she finished sterilising her hands – she had already done same using her ki before coming to the hospital, but had done this to ensure the doctor wouldn't have reason to try to stop her – and then she stood aside as Kaga moved to do the same. "She was administratively made a part of Unit 731. All official records on her were destroyed when Daisuke and his co-workers evacuated their headquarters in Píngfáng in the summer of 1945. However, relatives of the ship's company retained a list of the crew as well as the full architectural blueprints of the vessel and pictures taken of her when she was constructed at the Maizuru Naval Arsenal. Most of those relatives these days belong to a group of motorcycle enthusiasts calling themselves the Yonaga no Tenshi. And all of them are Avalonians now."

Toda blinked. He had Avalonian nurses – and two doctors performing internships – on his staff. "They can communicate with them through the Dreamscape?"

"Yes. They confirmed that _Yonaga_ was able to break out of whatever cove she had been ordered to await her chance to strike at Hawai'i," Negako said as Kaga finished cleaning her hands. "An earthquake collapsed a glacial formation into the entrance of the cove, trapping the ship for seventy years. Unit the early afternoon just past."

The doctor took that in as he moved to unlock the door; to ensure none could harm the totally helpless man inside the room, security measures were employed here. "Would they still be in good enough physical condition to carry out that mission?"

"I cannot say, but according to the relatives of the ship's company who came to my home to inform Hiromi of this, their aging process was significantly retarded."

"I see . . . "

" . . . it will come from the ice . . . the seventh one will come . . . "

Silence fell as the three people listened to the withered husk on the lone bed in the room. Tied now to various life-support machines, Miura Daisuke was presently awake and gazing at the ceiling of his room, drool dripping from his lips. Gazing at the former Imperial Army colonel and biological/chemical warfare research scientist, Negako allowed her ki senses to reach out and scan the aged man to determine what – if anything – could be done to make him lucid enough so he could be interrogated. After a moment, she sighed. "The damage to the neurons in his brain is considerable."

Toda tried not to gape in total shock at that revelation; the grandmaster of Saikō Jinseijutsu-ryū hadn't asked to see any of the patient's charts or any other documentation . . . and she could tell _that_ by just a _**glance**_? "Negako-sama . . .!"

"Can we talk to him in this state?" Kaga wondered.

"Possibly. See if he can recognise you."

Nodding, the former Steel Angel moved to stand close to the bed, leaning over to gaze directly into Miura's eyes. Absently, she reached over to a box of Kleenex set on a nearby nightstand, drawing out a tissue so she could wipe his face down. At that contact, he blinked, a flash of surprise appearing deep within his eyes . . . and then those eyes suddenly focused on the beautiful brown-haired tomboy leaning over his head, her face covered by the rune tattoos that had granted her power when she was a gynoid. A second later, his jaw dropped as he blinked several times as a burst of joy seemed to explode from the still-intact elements of his mind, and then he smiled.

"Kaga-sama . . . "

Toda gasped. "He knows her?"

Negako shushed him. "Hai, Miura-taisa," Kaga answered. "How are you?"

The colonel blinked. "Not well . . . " he admitted, and then he smiled. "Kaga-sama . . . you came back to us . . . " he breathed out, his eyes tearing.

"Hai."

A slight nod. "Wonderful . . . " He then paused. "And Miyuki-sama . . .?"

Kaga grinned on recognising the name. Kirihara Miyuki was the Steel Angel that had been assigned to serve as a special officer for the _Kempeitai_ military police forces of the Imperial Japanese Army. When Miyuki had joined all her sisters into deactivating themselves in 1937 to prevent their being used to harm normal people in the war they sensed was coming, dozens of _Kempeitai_ officers and soldiers committed seppuku in grief over the loss of such a beautiful and kind person from their ranks. These days, Miyuki was a captain in the Ground Self-Defence Forces assigned to the Defence Intelligence Headquarters, Japan's equivalent to America's National Security Agency or Canada's Communications Security Establishment. "She's back as well," Kaga reported. "As are all of us." A sigh. "Miura-taisa . . . we need your help."

The colonel blinked again. "About what?"

"_Yonaga_."

Silence.

"The seventh one will arise from the ice . . . " Miura moaned.

Kaga sighed. "She's broken free of her confinement!" she then snapped.

More silence.

He blinked several times. "_Yonaga_ . . . is afloat?"

"Hai," she answered. "And heading to Hawai'i now."

The colonel took a moment to consider that. "She sailed from Sano-wan . . .?"

"Where is Sano-wan?" she asked.

A deep breath. "In Siberia . . . on an island . . . "

"Is it Arakamčečen Island?"

A nod. "H-hai . . . Arakamčečen . . . "

Kaga breathed out. "Miura-taisa . . . could _Yonaga_ be ordered home?"

Still more silence.

"Home . . .?" he wondered, clearly surprised by that question.

"Hai. We need her crew back," she explained. "They have relatives who want them home. And . . . " A sigh. "There's a new _Yonaga_ waiting for them."

He stared at her. "A new _Yonaga_ . . .?"

"Hai. A space aircraft carrier."

Miura seemed to fade for a moment before his eyes sharpened again. "A space carrier . . . you mean . . . the Hoshi no Tenshi . . . a new _Yonaga_ . . .?"

Kaga nodded. "Hai. Aoi is on that ship now. But she can't fly her alone."

The colonel's eyes went very wide. "Aoi-sama, too . . .?"

"Hai." Tōgō Aoi had joined the Maritime Self-Defence Forces as soon as she had been transformed into an Avalonian; she was now part of the pre-commissioning crew of the new _Yonaga_ as a lieutenant, though she had not served aboard a ship before in her first life as a Steel Angel. "We need _Yonaga_'s crew to come home . . . the _Heavenly Sovereign_ needs her to come home. Can you help us bring _Yonaga_ home, Miura-taisa?"

Silence fell again as the colonel considered that, his mind – the undamaged parts of it – churning over what he had just been told. After what seemed an eternity to Toda Hiroke – it was actually about two minutes by Negako's time-sense – Miura took a deep breath. "My body is damaged and weak, Kaga-sama . . . forgive me . . . "

"It's alright," Kaga assured him. "Don't feel ashamed . . . "

A sigh. "Where is Namiyo-chan . . .?"

"Who?"

"Ah, I'm sorry," Toda stated as he came up to stand on the other side of the bed. "Hiratasuka Namiyo is one of the Avalonian nurses assigned to my staff, Kaga-sama." He gazed down at Miura. "Namiyo-chan has gone home for the night, Sensei."

The colonel blinked. "She talks to me . . . in my mind . . . "

"She mind-melds with you?" Kaga asked.

A nod. "Hai. And Sakamae-chan and Fuyuko-chan, too . . . "

"Hiroke, summon all three of them here now," Negako ordered.

The doctor blinked, and then nodded. "Hai, Negako-sama! Right away!"

He headed out of the room. Miura blinked as his mind locked on that unusual name, and then he smiled. "Negako-sama . . . Hosan-sama's daughter . . . "

"In one sense of the term, yes," the grandmaster stated as she moved to stand where Toda had been just now. "Daisuke, what are _Yonaga_'s communications security orders? Do they have the capability of listening in to radio signals?"

Miura blinked, and then nodded. "Hai . . . they will not transmit out, but they can pick up signals . . . on military shortwave frequencies . . . "

"So they would have overheard the _Gyokuon-hōsō_ on 15 August 1945, correct?"

A nod. "Hai."

"They're disobeying orders?" Kaga asked, a flash of amusement in her eyes.

"In a sense, yes. But given the mentality that was governing the actions of soldiers and sailors of the time period serving in the name of Emperor Hirohito, they would act very much like Onoda Hiroo and others like him behaved when the broadcast went out," Negako stated. "Remembering the solution that was used to convince Hiroo to come out of the wilderness, we may have to employ something similar to convince Hiroshi and his shipmates to turn for Tōkyō as soon as they clear the Bering Sea."

"They can be given new orders, Negako-sama," Miura advised.

Negako nodded. "Agreed. Kaga, contact Aoi. We need her here now."

Kaga nodded. "Hai!"

* * *

Five hundred kilometres over Aomori Prefecture at the north end of Honshū . . .

She officially had no name yet.

Of course, everyone knew she would soon become the Japanese Starship _Yonaga_.

Currently only designated as "Space Aircraft Carrier #45" within the halls of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force, the fifth of the Type Four starships designed by the unstoppable team of Ki Tsukihana and Hakaru Ayami and launched a month before from Space Dockyard #16 was now being held in geosynchronous orbit over the northern naval base of Ōminato. The dozen Star Flare heavy cargo shuttles that formed part of the great ship's aerospace compliment of nearly five hundred fighters, shuttles and support craft were taking off and landing on the executive flight deck behind her small superstructure, carrying supplies and personnel drafts from both the surface and the Avalon bioroid factory as she was slowly worked up to eventually be commissioned as an active warship in the Japanese armed forces. With the year and more experience in commissioning _Yamato_ behind the administrative staff at Yokosuka, it was child's play to ensure the two newest ships of what was unofficially called the "Space Self-Defence Forces" would be brought into commission with as few hiccups as possible.

Reflecting on that, Tōgō Aoi could only smirk.

They were all human, after all. Terran and Avalonian alike.

Mistakes were always possible.

And the champion of the "Steel Angel Wars" in 1924 wouldn't have it any other way.

"Tōgō-kaii?"

The grey-haired, brown-eyed, tomboyish ex-gynoid Navy officer – she appeared to be a woman in her mid-twenties, which is what her original body had been fashioned after when she first became self-aware in 1920 at the start of the whole worldwide Steel Angel Project – perked, and then she smiled as a cup of sencha was handed to her. "Arigatō," she said as she took the cup and sipped from it before she nodded her thanks to Hashimoto Yoshike, the elder mother of all Avalonians now aboard the new _Yonaga_. "How are things with your sisters, Yoshike-san? How are you adjusting after being given the chance to have your soul interact with the Dragon Jade?"

Yoshike smiled. "It makes things a lot easier than they were before my soul was augmented by Yuka-san," she admitted, her brown eyes flashing with amusement. Like the original crews of most of the ships of the Earth Defence Force, the Avalonian "plank owners" of both the _K__ō__tetsu_ and _Yonaga_ had been produced directly from the bioroid factory and allowed to live a couple months without outside influences as their ships were physically completed and brought into orbit over Japan for final pre-commissioning preparations. Of course, like the Avalonian personnel aboard all the other Type One battleship/carriers, Type Two destroyers, Type Three frigates and Type Four aircraft carriers in the Force, the souls of _Yonaga_'s "plank owners" were given a "boost" thanks to contact with the Dragon Jade, the ancient device created by an earlier reincarnation of the legendary Taoist sage Zuǒ Cí which had been augmented with the souls of 31,738 tōshi who had been trapped in the enchanted forest north of Nanban High School until they were liberated by Moroboshi Negako and Morokuzu Ryōko. And like her 299 sisters onboard now, Yoshike often wondered who was her "past-self" whose soul-fragment was now contained in the chrysanthemum-shaped flower pedal earring hanging off her left lobe.

But she didn't allow such to deter her from carrying out her duties.

"Do you think we'll be ready on time for the commissioning?" Aoi wondered.

A nod. "I believe so," the younger woman answered. "If, of course, the Diet doesn't get any cold feet and if the protests concerning the commissioning of such an 'evil thing' as an aircraft carrier doesn't turn into something violent."

A smirk. "There is that . . . "

Aoi understood and agreed to the concept of direct control of the military by the Diet. She had been woken and lived the first six years of her life during the reign of the Taishō Emperor. Remembering that man, the former _Tokkeitai_ lieutenant could only sigh. Born sickly, the man christened as Crown Prince Yoshihito of the Imperial House of Yamato in 1879 had not been as active in the governance of his nation as his father; in fact, a year after Aoi was born, the Taishō Emperor's son Hirohito was made Crown Prince Regent and effectively ruled in his father's name until the older man's death five years later from pneumonia. Because of that, Aoi – and her sister Steel Angels living in Japan – had matured in the time known to historians as the "Taishō Democracy," the period when the influence of the Meiji Emperor's _genr__ō_ faded and the Imperial Diet was forced to assume new duties and powers on behalf of the nation they helped administer. Thus, it was quite easy for the former Imperial Navy officer to accept her commission as an officer in the Maritime Self-Defence Forces, who were directly answerable to the Diet of the State of Japan as representatives of the people. Never again would maniacs like the selfish idiots that unleashed the Liǔtiáohú Incident in 1931 that gave the Imperial Army the excuse to invade Manchuria – to say anything of the ringleaders of the Lúgōuqiáo Incident of 7 July 1937 that unleashed the Second Sino-Japanese War – be allowed to run rampant as they did in the past.

Aoi blinked as she sipped her tea. It had been the 1937 incident at the structure crossing the Yǒngdìng River known more commonly in the West as the "Marco Polo Bridge" that had finally convinced the Steel Angels across the world that humanity was slipping once more towards unleashing total war on each other. To people like Tōgō Aoi and Kirihara Miyuki, the concept of being asked to KILL a human being was the most loathsome thing imaginable; Steel Angels had been conceived of by people such as Professor Ayanokōji Hakushi as PROTECTORS of humanity, not their KILLERS. To be asked to fight a war where they might kill those they swore to keep safe was something NONE of them wanted to do. Thus – in a decision that tore into the very souls of people like Aoi, who were bonded to young mystics to better enhance their abilities – they asked a woman from Canada named Dean Raeburn to deactivate them and hide their bodies in places where they couldn't be found and forced to do what they never wanted to do.

Helping the heiress of Master Hosan known more commonly these days as "Major Raeburn" in that effort was another – a bodiless spirit that had first become truly self-aware in the fifth year of the Era of Bunka – who made them a special promise.

_As I will be human, so will you. That will be done._

Remembering Moroboshi Negako's words to that end, Aoi smiled.

_If only Shinobu had lived to see this day . . .!_

She blinked as she felt tears in her eyes, and then she jolted on seeing a handkerchief being handed to her by Yoshike. "Dōmo," she said as she wiped her eyes.

"It's alright, Aoi-onēsama," the younger bioroid stated . . .

. . . as the dataPADD before Aoi flashed. "Aoi?" a voice called out.

Aoi tapped a button. "What is it, Kaga?"

"You're needed at the Juntendō University Hospital," Shichinohe Kaga replied.

The grey-haired woman blinked. "Why?"

"We have a problem. Concerning _Yonaga_'s namesake."

Aoi's jaw dropped . . .

* * *

In the skies over the Bering Sea, southwest of Saint Lawrence Island . . .

"Sweet Jesus, Mary and Joseph . . .!"

"Damn . . .!"

"Look at the _**size**_ of that son-of-a-bitch!"

"Got that right, Jen! So what's the plan, Donna?"

In the front seat of her F-24, Donna Koch could only breathe out as she gazed on the darkened hull of a rather BIG warship making her way southwest from the Bering Strait for the channel separating Attu Island from Médnyj Island, which was still over fifteen hours away at the carrier's current speed. "Right now, we do nothing but watch her," she said. "We know what she plans to do – or at least, what we _think_ she plans to do – but given that attacking a ship like this would be a turkey shoot . . . "

"Amen to that," Sally Penn called over from the front seat of her Ghostrider. "She may be the most armoured ship ever built, but the pulse lasers on our fighters could cut through granite like a hot knife going through butter. Carriers like this baby are floating ammunition and fuel dumps. One good hit in a magazine . . .!"

"She'll go up like the _Hood_ did in the Denmark Strait in '41," Sally's weapons systems officer, Lieutenant Jennifer Clarkson, warned.

"Amen to that, Jen," Donna stated. "Look at the edge of the decks."

The others looked. "Damn! She's got her AA guns manned!" Raye Adair said.

"Yep. And much that I know our fighters have defensive shields, they're supposed to be used in _outer space_. With NO atmosphere around us."

The others nodded. Much that they all liked the idea of being able to do things that could only have been imagined in science fiction films like _Star Wars_ and the original _Battlestar Galactica_ movie back in the 1970s, actually becoming qualified crew on the Northrop-Grumman F-24 Ghostrider showed them that outer space combat wasn't just lining up their machines to shoot down a bogey from behind while avoiding being shot in turn. You had to avoid things like meteorites and asteroids – especially when you were "marking the line" at the orbital plane of the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt, which was the demarcation line between Terran and Neptunian/Tritonian sectors of space in the solar system – as well as remember that all the neat things that kept you alive while in the near-vacuum of space didn't work as well when you were close to a planetary body like Earth, Mars or Venus with their atmospheres.

Then again, the Terrans and Avalonians allied together as the "United Nations of Earth and the Free Planetary Republic of New Avalon" had some advantages over a lot of the surrounding races. The Ipraedies preferred small destroyer-class ships they called Warbirds which could cloak themselves and land on a planet . . . but didn't have much when it came to counter-space fighter armaments. The Urusians – who DID have dedicated aircraft carriers in their Kashin-class battlewagons – were too divided politically to constitute a real threat against Earth; only if a reborn Urusian Empire under the control of the effectively-wiped out Imperial Round would a serious threat to Earth come from that world. The Niphentaxians were still recovering from what the loss of the Avalonians over a year before had unleashed to all sectors of their economy, especially their defence support base. The Seifukusu and the Noukiites used solar-sail technology to power the warp drives of their own ships, which made use of space combat fighters hard and thus forced both powers to use frigate-class border patrol ships that were as weak defensively as an Ipraedies Warhawk. The Zephyrites were not very strong militarily and were technologically behind their Avalonian cousins . . . and they didn't have dedicated aircraft carriers in their fleets either. As for other races from across the galaxy, they were just too far away and would have to punch through other people's territories before getting anywhere close to Earth to be a threat.

In other words, doing duty as part of forces temporarily assigned to the Earth Defence Force – as the 3rd Space Fighter Wing of the United States Air Force was now – would probably constitute quiet patrols out to mark the line around Earth . . .

. . . and oddball encounters like this.

_Then again, that sort of lazy complicity is what nailed us at Pearl thanks to these guys' buddies in the _Kido Butai, Donna mused to herself as she gazed once more on _Yonaga_. _And we sure as shit won't get caught with our britches down like we were back in 1941 . . . to say anything of 9/11! Did these guys monitor _that_ . . .?_

"Raye?"

"Yo!" Raye called up.

"You picking up any transmissions from this guy?"

The native of San Antonio in Texas shook her head. "Negative. She's got radio receivers that can pick up stuff in the decametre range. They also have portable radios on that ship that are probably tuned to old AM radio frequencies as well. There are transmitter units on her ship for broadcasting, but the crystals that allow units to transmit out are missing from each radio." A sigh. "That would make sense."

Donna nodded. "Yeah, they were supposed to maintain total EMCON until the transmission to climb Mount Niitaka was sent out from Navy HQ," she said.

"So what do we do, Donna?" Sally asked from her F-24.

"Are you doing the full life-scan of this ship, Jen?"

"Almost done, Major," Jennifer replied. "Ten minutes."

A sigh. "Let's keep post." She tapped a control. "Bulldog Three-Alpha to Doghouse. Come in, Doghouse. This is Bulldog Three-Alpha. Come in, Doghouse."

"Doghouse here," the voice of Captain Elisabeth Rogers called back from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. "What's the current status of Target Yankee, over?"

Donna smirked; if the Imperial Japanese Navy crew of the _Yonaga_ had heard their ship be referred to by the phonetic letter for "Y" . . .? "Still maintaining current course and speed. No other ships within immediate target range. Her triple-A is manned and ready. She's got radio receivers, but no active transmitters; Target Yankee is under total EMCON. Three-Bravo is still performing a life-scan. Estimated time of completion for transmission back to the Doghouse is ten minutes, Liz."

"Roger that, Donna. Maintain post until relief by Garb Delta at oh-four hundred, then you are clear to RTB," Elisabeth replied back.

"Roger that, Doghouse. Will advise when life-scan is complete. Three-Alpha out," Donna stated before clicking off the link with her squadron's operations room.

"Two-and-a-half hours," Raye lamented.

"You never signed up for desk duty, Lieutenant," the Bay Stater said.

"Roger that, Major," the Texan noted with a smirk . . .

* * *

Below and off to starboard . . .

"Do you hear that?"

Seaman First Class Hachirobe Kiyonaga perked on hearing the voice of the officer of the watch, and then he blinked before turning to gaze on Sub-Lieutenant Moroboshi Kyōsuke, the junior communications officer. "Hai, Moroboshi-chūi, I do. A moaning sound . . . " he declared as he gazed into the pitch-black night over _Yonaga_.

"The wind?" Seaman Second Class Shinozaki Nobuyori asked.

Pausing to allow the faint moaning sound to echo in his ears, the younger son of Moroboshi Ryūbi shook his head. "No," he said as he gazed with his eyes into the dark night. "It's too artificial-sounding. A turbine of some type, I think . . . " He then smiled. "Good morning, Admiral," he then stated. "Come to get some fresh air?"

A dry chuckle. "You still have the best ears on this ship, Kyōsuke-san," Fujita Hiroshi said with an amused smile as he stood beside his current officer of the watch. Even if there were no external lights anywhere flashing on _Yonaga_, it had been child's play for the admiral to get to the pilotage platform on the forward end of the island through the darkened spaces inside the ship's island; the ship's crew ran fire drills every week with all internal lights extinguished to ensure everyone stayed used to the idea of operating in total blackness. "What do you suppose it might be?" he wondered.

"Aircraft of some type. Perhaps some of the new space fighters we've learned about over the last year or so," Kyōsuke stated. "If they're Russian, they'll be MiG-37s, what the Americans call the 'Firefox.' If they're American, they'll be F-24 Ghostriders. If they're Canadians – we know of the NORAD alliance between the United States and the Dominion – they'll be CF-105 Arrows. Or possibly CF-148 Camel IIIs as their Air Cavalry regiments are assigned to also assist in the air defence of the Dominion. And if they're Japanese, they'll be Mitsubishi F-7s, the Kotora."

"You still believe everything we have overheard on the radios, don't you?"

The younger officer sighed; he had experienced this conversation with the elderly officer for many years now. "You know my reasons, sir."

Fujita nodded. Moroboshi Kyōsuke was a rare exception when it came to the officers currently aboard _Yonaga_. While almost everyone else were descent of samurai stock from all across Japan, the young communications officer hailed from one of the so-called 'Tenchiaiki Jūkazoku' families, who had been direct servants of the Sons of Heaven for hundreds of years. Kyōsuke's father Ryūbi, in fact, had been the living host of a being that literally defied all reason: the _Saik__ō__ Jinseijutsu_ – also known as Moroboshi Negako – born of the wisdom of the late Master Hosan Hirosuke in the time of the Sanjō Emperor a thousand years before, then becoming a sentient being in her own right in the twenty-ninth year of the reign of the Kōkaku Emperor. Kyōsuke's older brother Kokeru – after marrying a fine woman from Hokkaidō named Hana Nagaiwakai – had gone on to serve with the Imperial Navy as a pilot himself; Kyōsuke didn't have the eyesight needed to win his own wings even if his other senses were inhumanly sharp. And he had a brain to go with those senses, a brain that had helped a lot in ensuring the crew of the _Yonaga_ would survive their seven-decade imprisonment in Sano-wan.

He was also one of the more peacefully-minded men aboard the ship. Though not a trained Shintō priest, he often officiated in prayers to the various Kami in the Shrine of Infinite Salvation, the unofficial ship's temple located at the starboard forward end of the hangar deck. If there were any serious disputes between personnel aboard – a natural outcome of seven decades of total isolation from outside society – it was Kyōsuke who swept in like the winds of a typhoon to defuse it before it came to blows, much less provoked formal duels of honour within the Shrine. He was not an adherent to the ways of Bushidō like his fellow officers had become – the Moroboshi Clan of Mutsu-no-kuni adhered to a slightly different code of behaviour that Kyōsuke called the "Way of the Four Futures" (Truth, Trust, Respect and Hope) which had grown from his family's Taoist-driven ninjutsu traditions – but his joviality ensured none of his fellow Eta-jima alumni would lash out at him because he firmly believed in the so-called "Jewel Voice Broadcast" transmitted on 15 August 1945 that supposedly ended the Greater East Asia War. Yes, other people on _Yonaga_ – even Fujita Hiroshi – had doubts about their mission to Pearl . . . doubts that had grown over the last year as many of the crew began having "dream meetings" with their relatives now forming a motorcycle club known as the Yonaga no Tenshi. But Kyōsuke had questioned the whole wisdom of maintaining adherence to the orders given to the ship's company by Yamamoto Isoroku back in 1941 after hearing the _Gyokuon-hōsō_, especially over the following years as news of Japan's recovery from that war filtered over the airwaves, leading to his family's involvement in the United Nations Earth Defence Force, said to be currently led by Kyōsuke's own grandniece and the current matriarch of his clan, Moroboshi Hiromi. To say anything of what his grandnephew Ataru had done to protect Earth from an alien race of _Oni_ of all things two summers before!

"And I respect those reasons even if I disagree with them," Fujita stated. "But if such did happen . . . " – both men knew what "such" actually inferred – " . . . I have to ask this: What was the advantage to the Americans to allow the Shōwa Emperor to live and not put him on trial as they did the others that were hanged at Sugamo Prison?"

"Continuity, Admiral," the younger officer answered. "Which would be needed given the aspirations of one certain fellow in Moscow at the time."

Fujita blinked. "Stalin, you mean?"

"Hai. The man personally redefined paranoia; his own successor as First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party effectively declared that when he denounced the man in 1956 . . . even if the speech itself never went public until 1989," Kyōsuke answered. "By the twentieth year of Shōwa, the Americans had endured FOUR YEARS of TOTAL war on TWO FRONTS. They were tired and wanted a chance at peace, not to mention stop spending so much money to sustain such a massive army, navy, marine corps and air forces on those two fronts, both in Western Europe and the Pacific Ocean basin. Atop that, they also had the lessons of the Great War to keep in mind. If they did put the Shōwa Emperor on trial as had been demanded by some of their allies, what was to stop a home-grown version of _Hitler_ from arising in his stead? Don't you remember what Maria-san and Ekaterina-san confirmed?"

Fujita nodded. He wasn't annoyed at the idea of his junior communications officer having known of the contents of the initial interrogation of the Russian police officers brought aboard _Yonaga_ the previous afternoon; Moroboshi Kyōsuke made it his business to know everything he could about what happened on the ship. "Hai, I do," he admitted. "So what would you suggest we should do now? Just go home?"

A sigh. "There is nothing wrong with confirming if certain orders are still applicable to our situation, Admiral," the younger man stated. "Yes, we will follow you wherever you wish to go. There is no doubt in that. But my family has always believed in this: If one must die in the service of the Heavenly Sovereign, let that death _**mean**_ something in the end. Let it ensure others can live on. You yourself knew that a war with the Americans wouldn't last in our favour beyond eighteen months. Admiral Yamamoto and other officers felt the very same way right from the beginning. Even if they were arrogant racists – as Yoshi-san and all the other dōhō who came back home can confirm – the Americans weren't going to provoke genocide regardless of what a whiskey-loving drunkard like William Halsey said. ESPECIALLY after what they learned the Nazis did in Europe!" As Fujita chuckled, Kyōsuke pointed off to _Yonaga_'s port side. "If whoever is out there are Americans in F-24s, they'll see us as a _curiosity_ first and foremost. They won't attack; their own treaty obligations – if such a treaty does exist, of course – to Japan would forbid such a thing, even if we would attack them in return. They'll want to investigate what we are and why we're out here. And if they come to realise who we are, President Obama will no doubt immediately appeal to the Heavenly Sovereign to call on us to head to Yokosuka." As the admiral nodded – it had been a shock to _Yonaga_'s crew, especially the American-born ones like Matsuhara Yoshi, when news of the election of a BLACK president had broken out in the fall of 2008! – Kyōsuke added, "The Americans _**have**_ changed. I believe it's possible for them to learn the lessons of history. I have no proof beyond what we've monitored over the radios, but no society can remain still against the flow of time. The Russians learned that, didn't they?"

A nod. "They did." The admiral sighed. "Maintain your watch, Lieutenant," he then ordered. "And if you actually SEE those fighters up there, get a good look at them for Sachiko-san to draft some pictures for us to analyse."

"Hai. Have a good evening, Admiral."

The people on the pilotage bowed as Fujita stepped off the platform. As soon as he was gone, Kyōsuke took a deep breath as he walked over to the port side to gaze into the dark night off _Yonaga_'s port side. The two seamen on lookout duties – as well as Seaman Second Class Hayata Iemochi, who was the radioman standing the middle watch on the pilotage platform, ready to relay commands to various departments if required – all gazed on him for a moment before they returned to their own duties. Noting that, Kyōsuke could only sigh as he felt something stir deep within his very own mind.

_When are we going home, Onii-sama . . .?_ a female voice asked.

"Soon, Sachi. We'll go home soon," the lieutenant whispered.

The seamen didn't blink on hearing him say those words . . .

* * *

Passing through the Bering Strait between Cape Dežnëva and Ratmanova (Big Diomede) Island, that moment . . .

"We are still undetected, my friends."

A smirk crossed the captain's face. "Wonderful. And the sensors helping keep us from running aground?" he then asked the sonar officer nearby.

A nod. "Working perfectly, Mankib. Given that the only people on Big Diomede Island are Russian frontier guard troops without maritime air support . . . "

"We should be safe from them," the captain, Mankib as-Saif, finished for his friend, and then he sighed. "What about the masking functions against SOSUS?"

The man at the countermeasures station snorted. "Easy as pie, my friends," he said as he gazed on the others in the control room of the totally-rebuilt Paltus-class submarine they were manning; the NATO nations referred to this class as the "Kilo." "Given the insane passion the Avalonians demonstrated towards building up national defence forces after their arrival on this planet last winter, all one had to do was ask them to make this vessel ecologically safe and totally silent . . . and they did it." A smirk. "Pity they didn't realise who was actually going to use such a ship."

Nods around the room. The vessel they were currently on had been built for the Islamic Republic of Iran as the _Nūr_, one of three Paltus-class submarines ordered by the government in Tehrān in the 1990s to give that nation true underwater warfare capabilities for use in the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. But in the wake of the arrival of the Avalonians and the commissioning of the starship _Firdawsī_ into the Iranian armed forces – not to mention the declaration that one of the thirty colony worlds that had been given to the Terrans by the Seifukusu Dominion, known in Farsi as "Aryānā" and in English as "New Persia," would be opened to allow natives of that nation to settle when they were ready to do so – had caused a massive turn in defence outlook among the Āyatollāhs that ruled the spiritual home of Shī'ah Islam.

No longer was Iran interested in becoming a regional superpower with nuclear weapons to intimidate the Israelis and keep the Americans away from helping the Sunni heretics controlling the holy cities of Makkah and al-Madīnah. Now Iran was interested in creating a colony – the Islamic Republic was guaranteed at least ONE-THIRD of the habitable space on Aryānā, with most of the remainder of the planet going to their fellow Muslims in Pakistan – which they could develop to their heart's content and without outside interference. Because of that – and because Iran was also given the right to commission the frigate _Daryâcheh-ye Orumiyeh_ and the replenishment support ship _Damāvand_ . . . with a troop-landing ship named the _Kē'shm_ and a battleship (without aircraft wing) named the _Haxāmaniš_ soon to follow – the needs of the surface navy had fallen quite by the wayside. Thus it had been child's play to make a secret sale between Iran and the Jamāhīriyyah of Libya, which was now fighting for its very life thanks to the "Arab Spring" that had ignited the previous December in neighbouring Tunisia and had spread to Egypt and elsewhere in the blink of an eye.

Of course, being responsible people – and with the unsuspecting help of the Space Angels living in Russia – the Libyan agents in Shipyard Number 10 in Poljárnyj had requested that everything that could be done to ensure that the ship or any living creature the ship might encounter would not be harmed by any known means was done.

Thanks to the technology the Avalonians had introduced to clean up the Russian Navy – not to mention a lot of cash, which the government of the Brother Leader had in spades before the accursed United Nations froze his overseas assets back in February when the rebellion against the Jamāhīriyyah began in the east of Libya – the former _Nūr_ (now renamed the _Sayf_) had been transformed from a nearly-stealthy diesel sub with average armament to a truly stealthy, cold-fusion powered nuclear machine with a propulsion system that came straight out of speculative fiction stories and state-of-the-art weapons that was the match of anything else designed to work underwater.

She would be put to use soon enough.

"I still say we should have gone directly through the Strait of Gibraltar."

Mankib sighed. "That area is no doubt being watched over by submarine forces of the West, Hamal," he stated as he gazed on his first officer, Hamal al-Farqad. "That is why we're going to approach the Gulf of Sidra from the direction of the Suez Canal."

Silence.

"We'll be spotted . . .!" the pilot gasped.

A shake of the head. "Not so, my friend. We'll rendezvous with a modified container ship controlled by our brothers in the _Ḥ__ashshāshīn_ well before entering the patrol zone of the infidels' so-called CTF-150. The ship has a hidden internal dock that can be accessed through the bow. We'll dock the _Sayf_ inside the ship and allow it to transport us right into the Mediterranean Sea without being seen by anyone. Once we're out into the open, we can then eliminate the infidels' ships and aircraft that are participating in their 'Operation: Unified Protector!'" People around the captain smirked on hearing the derision in his voice when it came to speaking of the NATO-led effort to support the rebels based in Binġāzī seeking to overthrow the Brother Leader and the Jamāhīriyyah. "Once that is done, the Brother Leader's fighters can then go in to sweep up the rebels and put them to death like the infidels they are!"

Grim nods all around. "A pity we couldn't use such a ship in the west," Hamal then lamented. "The approach course would be a lot shorter and we could easily blockade the Straits of Gibraltar from any sort of penetration from America, Canada, Britain, the French Atlantic-based forces, Germany and all the rest of them."

A smirk. "Sadly, Hamal, the container ship came out of Gadani in Pakistan," Mankib said. "She was saved from the scrap yard there by our brothers in the _Ḥ__ashshāshīn_, and then rebuilt into the type of support ship that we need to press our own goals. She was only taken out to sea just as we left Poljárnyj for the trip around Asia to get to where we have to be. All planned to the letter by our friends."

The others considered that, and then many of them laughed. "I withdraw my objections then, Captain!" Hamal then stated. "Given how good those men are . . . "

"Yes, they are that," Mankib said before taking a deep breath. "Wasat?"

"Yes?" the pilot, Wasat al-Qaid, then asked.

"As soon as we clear Cape Čaplino, take us southwest so we can pass between Attu and Médnyj before getting out into the open Pacific," the captain ordered. "As soon as you feel it right, bring us to full speed as well. The sooner we get to where we have to go, the better. Our friends in Libya need all the help they can get."

Wasat nodded. "Of course, my friend." He turned back to the dataPADD that was being used to help with plotting the ship's course. "A good thing we found out all the abilities and limitations of the Great Satan's SOSUS network while we were having the _Sayf_ upgraded. Lucky thing for us that the Space Angels have yet to help improve their underwater-detection capabilities. It will humiliate the sub-hunters in Virginia to learn that their ability to seek out underwater targets has been effectively negated."

"Not for long," Hamal mused.

"Yes, not for long," Mankib agreed. "But by the time such countermeasures will be deployed, the Jamāhīriyyah will be saved – and hopefully expanded further to allow all of the Faithful to live under it – and then the Lady Moroboshi will have no choice but to allow the Brother Leader to have unrestricted access to the _Khalīj Surt_ and the _Bikku Bitti_. Perhaps even gain control of more powerful ships like those remarkable Type One battleship-carriers that she used to smite the alien devils and their lunatic allies who enslaved the Space Angels like they did last summer."

The others in the control room nodded. None of the people aboard the _Sayf_ hated Moroboshi Hiromi even if the woman was not one of the Faithful. She was certainly a friend of the Faithful as witness her firm standing against the devilish Oni – who had, two years before, ALLOWED a space-taxi company to temporarily steal all of the liquid black gold from Earth just to make the Lady Hiromi's long-suffering brother submit to the will of one of them – and their insane allies from Phentax Two who had done untold evil against the Space Angels, the daughters of Sagussa calling themselves "Avalonians," for over a hundred years. And when she had been made Director of the United Nations Earth Defence Force, the Lady Hiromi made it very clear that she had no interest concerning herself with internal national matters. Her words to that end, broadcast to the peoples of Earth after her successful mission to Yaminokuni, spoke volumes on that subject:

"My friends, I am a citizen of ONE nation among nearly TWO HUNDRED such nations on this planet!" she said one afternoon in New York City. "Who am _**I**_ to decide what a member-state of the United Nations will do with her citizens? I have not been granted the right to make such choices! And I would refuse any opportunity that might present itself to force me to make such a terrible choice! YOU . . . " – she had pointed to the ambassadors who had been gathered in the General Assembly Hall that day – " . . . must make that choice! All I will ever do is make sure that the technology that now helps keep us safe from those who would enslave us or belittle us as a species is NOT used to harm the very people it was built to protect. While each of the ships now commissioned into your nations' armed forces – and those still yet to come – will be administratively controlled by your nations' governments, it is agreed by all who have come to serve on those ships and who will soon serve on the new ships that all national questions are left at the door _**as soon as you get past the line of the thermosphere**_! I'm sure you noble worthies can certainly agree to something like THAT, ne?"

It had been a unanimous "yes" vote for that particular binding resolution.

Reflecting on that, Mankib then smiled.

_Our destiny lies within the stars of Allāh's Heaven! With the guidance of the Brother Leader and the Jamāhī__riyyah, we will seize it and never look back . . .!_

_**To be continued . . .  
**_

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES:**

1) The other former Steel Angels mentioned in this part came from the _Kōtetsu Tenshi Kurumi_ manga. **Aoi** (whom I give the family name of the victor at the Battle of Tsu-shima in 1905, Fleet Admiral **Tōgō Heihachirō** [1848-1934]) first appeared in episode 13 of the manga, "Decisive Battle: The True Steel Angel of Japan." She was seen as the "official" Steel Angel for Japan in the Steel Angel Wars depicted in that part of the series, so I made her an officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy with the rank of lieutenant. **Miyuki** first appeared in episode 11, "Kurumi's Spy Mission." She was shown in that episode as a matron at a local bathhouse, so it made sense for me to make her an intelligence officer affiliated with the _**Kempeitai**_ ("Military Police Corps") of the Imperial Japanese Army with the rank of captain. Her family name **Kirihara** is taken from a different reading of the kanji 切腹 ("stomach-cutting"), which is more often read as "**_seppuku_**" (as noted in the manga, the person who designed Miyuki was a "Seppuku-san" from Tōkyō). Aoi's branch of service in the Imperial Japanese Navy was the _**Tokkeitai**_ (short for _Tokubetsu-keisatsu-tai_ ["Corps of Special Police"]).

2) The **Defence Intelligence Headquarters** (in Japanese, _Jōhōhonbu_) is the official signals intelligence agency of the Japanese government. It is directly answerable to the Japanese Defence Ministry. Agents of this organisation made an appearance in the anime series _Canaan_, which appeared in 2009.

3) As a Taoist, Moroboshi Negako has really no need or desire to adhere to any sort of special naming convention, even when it comes to the one person she would gladly address by title: the Heavenly Sovereign of Japan. In her eyes, it makes no sense whatsoever to use posthumous names to refer to someone, hence her willingness to address the late Shōwa Emperor by his birth-name "Hirohito."

4) **Ōminato**, which is located on the northern shore of Mutsu Bay on the northern end of Honshū, was the headquarters of the **Ōminato Guard District** of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the home base for ships and naval aviation units that patrolled Hokkaidō and places north before the end of World War Two. Today, the base is under the control of the Maritime Self-Defence Forces as **JMSDF Ōminato Air Base**, which serves as a helicopter airport base for the **Mitsubishi SH-60J/K Seahawk** anti-submarine helicopter (a Japanese-built derivative of the **Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk** design).

5) Translations: **Kaii** – suffix title for those who are ranked as lieutenants (_Ittō-kaii_), junior grade lieutenants (_Nitō-kaii_) or ensigns (_Santō-kaii_) in the Maritime Self-Defence Forces; **Genrō** – literally "elder statesman," this was the term applied to the extra-constitutional advisors of the **Meiji Emperor** (1852-1912) who effectively helped create the modern Japanese state in the wake of the **Meiji Restoration** in 1868; **AA** – Anti-Aircraft (the term "**Triple-A**" [or **AAA**] means "anti-aircraft artillery"); **EMCON** – Emissions Control (in other words, total radio and other signal communications silence); **RTB** – Return to Base; **Chūi** – Navy lieutenant junior grade/sub-lieutenant, Army lieutenant, Air Force flying officer (NATO rank code OF-1, U.S. Armed Forces pay code O-2); **Kotora** – Red Tiger; **SOSUS** – Sound Surveillance System, the chain of underwater listening posts used by the United States and her allies to track the movements of Soviet submarines during the Cold War (as fans of Tom Clancy's novel _The Hunt For Red October_ will remember); **Paltus** – Halibut; **Aryānā** – Land of the Aryans; **Āyatollāh** – literally "Sign of God," the title given to high-ranking clerics who follow the Usuli doctrine of Twelver Shī'ah Islam; **Makkah** – Mecca; **al-Madīnah** – Medina; **Sayf** – Sword; **Ḥashshāshīn** – Soldiers, a term taken from _ḥashishīn_ ("users of hashish"), this was the traditional title applied to the Assassins who once served **Hasan-e Sabbāh** (circa 1050-1124); **Jamāhīriyyah** – often translated as "state of the masses" as used by **Mu'ammar al-Qaḏḏāfī** (1942-2011), this word was part of the official title used by the government of Libya from 1977-2011.

6) As I've noted in other stories, **Ayanokōji Hakushi **is the name I've given to Kurumi's and Saki's creator (he was also known as "Doctor X" in the manga series).

7) The **Sanjō Emperor** (976-1017), birth-name **Iyasada**, was the sixty-seventh Heavenly Sovereign of Japan (ruling from 1011-16). The **Kōkaku Emperor** (1771-1840), birth name **Tomohito**, was the 119th Heavenly Sovereign. The twenty-ninth year of his reign was the year 1808 C.E. (the fifth year of the Era of Bunka).

8) **Eta-jima**, an island off the southern coast of Honshū near Hiroshima, is the site of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy (before 1945), whose facilities now serve as the Officer Candidate School for the Maritime Self-Defence Forces.

9) The "**twentieth year of Shōwa**" is the year 1945 C.E.

10) The naval watch system is a shift rotation system for ship crews. The watches run as follows (civilian and military time indicated):

**First Watch** (8:00 PM [2000 hours] to 12:00 midnight [0000 hours])  
**Middle Watch** (12:00 midnight to 4:00 AM [0400 hours])  
**Morning Watch** (4:00 AM to 8:00 AM [0800 hours])  
**Forenoon Watch** (8:00 AM to 12:00 noon [1200 hours])  
**Afternoon Watch** (12:00 noon to 4:00 PM [1600 hours])  
**First Dog Watch** (4:00 PM to 6:00 PM [1800 hours])  
**Last Dog Watch** (6:00 PM to 8:00 PM)

The **dog watch** is named because Sirius (the Dog Star) is said to be the first star that appears up in the sky at that time of day. An odd number of watches allow sailors to stand different watches at different times of the day. Also, the dog watches are split in half to allow the crew to have the evening meal at roughly the same time of day.

11) The **Iranian Navy Ship **_**Nūr**_ is a real submarine; she was a Russian-built submarine launched in 1993 and according to last intelligence reports, is currently based at Bandar-Abbas on the southern coast of Iran. Her pendant number is **902 **and she is named after the city and county of the same name on the Caspian Sea coast north of Tehrān.

12) Fans of _The Hunt for Red October_ should recognise the name **Poljárnyj**; this was the naval base near Múrmansk where the modified Akula-class (NATO reporting name "Typhoon") ballistic missile submarine _Krasnyj Oktjabr'_ ("Red October") departed from at the start of her only voyage under Soviet control.

13) Iranian starship names: The **Iranian Islamic Republic Starship **_**Daryâcheh-ye Orumiyeh**_ (pendant number **SFF-78**) is named after Lake Urmia, the largest lake in the Middle East and the third-largest salt water late on Earth; the **I.I.R.S. **_**Damāvand**_ (pendant **SAOE-432**) takes her name from Iran's highest mountain in the Alborz Range north of Tehrān; the **I.I.R.S. **_**Kē'shm**_ (pendant **SLHA-55**) is named after Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf near Bandar-Abbas; and the **I.I.R.S. **_**Haxāmaniš**_ (pendant **SBB-21**) is named after the ancestor of the Achaemenid Dynasty that ruled Persia between 705-675 B.C.E. (he is known to the west by the ancient Greek name "Achaemenes").

14) **CTF-150** is the code phrase for **Combined Task Force 150**, the multinational coalition naval task force controlled out of Bahrain as an international force under the operational command and control of the **United States Naval Forces Central Command** (**NAVCENT**) and the **United States Fifth Fleet** as a part of the War on Terror. It was first organised in 2002 out of a reorganisation of the United States Navy's **Task Force 150** (**TF-150**), which had done work off the Horn of Africa. Command of CTF-150 switches between the various nations who send ships to function as a part of it. As noted in _Avalonians and Questors_, ships of the Canadian Navy (on which Michelle Anderson and Sally Carpenter had served before their posting to _Haida_) have functioned as part of CTF-150.

15) Libyan starship notes: The **Libyan Starship **_**Khalīj Surt**_ (pendant number **SDD-214**) is named after the Gulf of Sidra, the arm of the Mediterranean Sea that separates the western and eastern coasts of the country; and the **L.S. **_**Bikku Bitti**_ (pendant **SFF-419**) was named in tribute to the country's highest mountain, located in the Dohone spur of the Tibesti Mountains on the Libyan-Chadian border in the south of the country.


	5. Hang Ten

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, before dawn . . .

"Hey, Pilot Dudette! We ready to fly?"

Hearing that jovial voice from the back of the Bombardier CSV-131 Dynajet space-capable tiltjet tactical utility transport, Pilot Sergeant Nicole Wong could only moan before she gazed from her seat to look on the grinning blond man in the red jumpsuit and blaze orange beret of a search and rescue technician. "Yeah, we're almost ready to go," Nikki replied as she turned back to gaze on the simple controls that made flying the support transport so easy compared to other aircraft. "We're taking on those two plank-owners from the Big 'E' with us on the mission to check the _Yonaga_ out."

Hearing that, Sergeant Jude Lizowski nodded. Both of them had – in the wake of their graduating from high school in Toronto in 2006 and moving on to post-secondary studies – joined the militia, becoming members of one of the then-former Air Cavalry regiments, the Queen's Own Toronto Dragoon Guards. Then classified as an armoured reconnaissance regiment, the Guards – as did all other former units of the Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry – maintained an unofficial "flying troop" at the Toronto City Airport, using four surplus United States Army UH-1 Iroquois tactical transport helicopters to support the ground forces of 32nd Canadian Brigade Group, the Militia formation based in and around Ontario's capital city. Of course, given that they were spiritually still air cavalry – "Even if we're wearing the wrong berets!" many gladly chanted whenever asked – at heart, people like Nikki and Jude trained to become army tactical air crew ever if they were classified as armoured soldiers. For Nikki, that meant flight school to earn her civilian helicopter pilot's license three years after joining the Guards, thus earning a brevet promotion to sergeant and being addressed as "pilot sergeant" by her mates. For Jude, it meant learning how to be a primary care paramedic at Humber College in Toronto, then getting the chance to "get it on" at the Canadian Forces School of Search and Rescue in Comox on Vancouver Island to be qualified as a SAR technician; former Air Cavalry regiments ensured they had at a section's worth of such people available to assist their Regular Force friends on missions that spanned the whole of the Dominion. Of course, even if such went above and beyond what was asked of the Guards by their superiors in Land Forces Central Area/Joint Task Force (Central), no one minded.

The Avalonians' arrival in the winter of 2010 had changed everything.

With the expansion of the Guards and her sister units to full wartime manning, people like Nikki finally won the chance to properly earn military pilot's wings and a remuster to the newly-established trade of air cavalry pilot in the reformed Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry. Along the way, the reserve regiments were asked to detail personnel on Class C service to help the six newly-reformed Regular Force regiments assume proper manning strength until such time as freshly-trained air cavalry troopers could make their way through pilot training at Moose Jaw and Dundurn and relieve the "weekend warriors" to return to their normal lives back home. The original flying troop of the Guards – after getting the chance to train up and exercise on the Bombardier CSV-131 Dynajet that would form the primary flying platform of a regiment's "Foxtrot" (Utility) Squadron – was sent en masse to Dundurn to fly with the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment (Air), thus get the chance to come to Alaska at the start of May to spend time with the American forces patrolling the Last Frontier and all elements of space out to the orbit of the Moon.

And now . . .

"We're here!"

Jude looked over as a bright-eyed Ensign Sarah Ross came up the aft boarding ramp of the Dynajet, a machine which resembled a Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor tactical transport save for the replacement of the Rolls-Royce T406 proprotor-equipped turboshaft engines with the same type of impulse pulse-jets that went on various space aircraft like the Starfire, the Ghostrider and the Camel III. Built with swivel engine mounts that could shift from vertical to horizontal modes to allow vertical take-off and landings from small tight locations, the Dynajet had effectively taken over all the duties once performed by the CH-146 Griffon tactical transport that had equipped the six squadrons of 1 Wing . . . and could potentially replace all other helicopter platforms in the Canadian military, from the re-commissioned Boeing CH-147 Chinook twin-rotor medium transport helicopters to even the proposed Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopters of 12 Wing meant to fly off surface warships. An Air Cavalry unit like the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment possessed thirty-two such machines as part of F Squadron: two platforms for the squadron headquarters staff, four flying troops of six machines each for tactical utility transport support and one troop of six for medical evacuation. Nikki's and Jude's aircraft currently were assigned as a part of what was called 65 Troop, the Saskatchewan's medical evacuation/combat search and rescue team.

"Hey, Ensign Dudette!" he then said as he gave the young ensign his normal lanky grin, which made Sarah smirk in return; Nikki had warned the Annapolis graduate of Jude's rather laid-back nature. "Park it somewhere! Soon as we get Nikki's co-pilot up here, we'll head on up and take a look at the big cool ship out in the ocean!"

Sarah nodded as she sat down in one of the chairs in the main cargo hold of the Dynajet just as her shipmate Ensign Leigh Rhyne came aboard. Seeing her, Jude then smirked. "Sorry! Forgot the other Ensign Dudette!" As the Mississippian aviator flashed the Ontario-born search and rescue technician a mock-annoyed glare – she had been taught right from the first day of flight training that it was not wise to piss off the SAR boys – the sergeant yelled aft, "Yo, Starr! We got a clock running, bra! The cool dudes on the Big 'Y' are gonna be claimin' sky soon! Let's go!"

"Coming!" Pilot Apprentice Master Corporal Emily Hampshire – who had called herself "Starr" when she had first met Jude and Nikki at the Galleria Mall back in Toronto years ago – said as she came aboard the Dynajet. Another one who had joined the Guards when she got out of high school, Starr had – while officially being registered as an armoured soldier meant to do reconnaissance work on a Mercedes-Benz Geländewagen – trained with 400 (City of Toronto) Tactical Helicopter Squadron in Borden as an aviation technician, learning how to maintain all sorts of wonderful toys that could be deployed off a helicopter. By the time the Guards were returned to flight status, she had reached the point where she would begin flying training, which she began doing upon her promotion to master corporal a year before. Of course, as part of her learning how to operate the Dynajet – she had no desire to fly a Camel III – Starr was teamed up with Nikki as the latter's co-pilot. "Had to go to the can first," she said as she moved to sit in the left-side seat.

"Alright, let's get going," Nikki said before she gazed aft. "You! Sit!"

Jude crouched down on the deck.

"Not that, you!" Nikki snarled.

Sarah and Leigh laughed as Starr smirked . . .

* * *

The Bering Sea, 250 kilometres east-southeast of the Oljutorskij Peninsula (Russia) and 500 kilometres west-southwest of Saint Michael Island (Alaska), dawn . . .

"Fine day for flying."

Standing on _Yonaga_'s slowing heaving deck – the carrier had just slipped over the edge of the continental shelf into the deeper waters of the North Aleutians Basin, so the stronger power of the shallow water waves was fading, this allowing the great ship to maintain a steady deck to launch aircraft – Commander Shimizu Masao could only grin as he looked over his shoulder at Lieutenant Commander Matsuhara Yoshi. "Lovely morning," the commander of the carrier's air group – unofficially, the 108 aircraft that were used on the carrier and the thirty-six reserve aircraft kept in ready storage aboard were known as a group as the "Sixth Naval Air Flotilla" – stated as he gazed south at the horizon. "Good weather with a strong enough breeze to allow us to take off without a necessary increase in speed." Like all Japanese aircraft carriers, _Yonaga_ had never been built with aircraft catapults to assist in take off, though she did have proper arrestor gear and crash barriers for landings. "You'll fly the second air patrol after we come back aboard, Yoshi-san. Hopefully, it'll be quiet."

"What about them?" Matsuhara asked as he nodded to the ship's port side.

Shimizu blinked. He could hear that faint turbine whine echoing through the air, though the lookouts had yet to actually see any aircraft. Still, he trusted Moroboshi Kyōsuke's incredibly sharp hearing and his interpretation of what could be out there waiting for them . . . even if he didn't agree with the younger officer's personal conclusions. "They're keeping out of visual range," the elder officer stated as he stared off in the direction his subordinate in command of the 296th Carrier Fighter Group – _Yonaga_'s force of 36 active and 12 reserve Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero-sen fighters – was currently looking. "That's being smart. If we see them, we'll get a good enough look at them. They were starting with jet turbine designs when we got sent to Sano-wan. I wonder what seventy years might have produced in the end."

"So do I," the California-born officer replied. "Be careful, Masao-san."

A smirk. "I'll be fine."

With that, the pilot turned aft to where his A6M2 was waiting, now being serviced by his personal hangar deck crew. Also waiting for him were his wingmen, Naval Air Pilot 1st Class Kitao Kenji and Ensign Doihara Shōji. Like he, they were dressed in fur-lined flight suits with life jackets, fur-lined helmets with ear-flaps up by both headphones that could be plugged into their fighters' radio systems and wrapped in place by hachimaki headbands emblazoned with the kanji 代永 which were used in properly writing their home ship's name. Underneath their flight suits, of course, the three men wore their personal senninbari, the "belts of a thousand stitches" that had been lovingly prepared by relatives before the pilots of _Yonaga_ had deployed with their ship on their seven-decade odyssey to Arakamčečen Island on the road to Pearl Harbour. Such mementos of the lives they had before their entrapment at Sano-wan had been carefully preserved for the day they would be worn when they climbed Niitaka-yama. And they would either remain with them if they died and their souls joined the millions of other kami who had fought for the Son of Heaven at Yasukuni in this life . . . or be presented to the spirits of their lost relatives on their final return to Yokosuka.

"Are we ready?" Shimizu asked.

Kitao and Doihara grinned. "We've been ready for seventy years, Commander," the latter confidently said before he gazed off to port. "Are we going after them?"

A nod. "Hai. They're staying too far away from our lookouts' eyes to let us see them." Shimizu then grinned. "Pity they never counted on Kyōsuke-san's ears."

The other pilots laughed. "Pity that!" Kitao said.

More laughter. The commander then gazed at the island. Noting the small man that was on the pilotage platform, he then straightened himself to attention. Seeing that, his wingmates did the same thing, and then all three men bowed to Fujita Hiroshi. Sensing the delighted nod from the admiral, they then straightened themselves.

"Man your planes," Shimizu instructed . . .

* * *

East of _Yonaga_'s position, six thousand metres above the sea level . . .

"Looks like a CAP of three Alpha-Six-Mikes, Nikki."

Nikki nodded. "Tell me when they're airborne."

"Roger that," Starr said as she gazed on the readout screen, now displaying a perfect 3-D image of _Yonaga_. "No catapults on the ship, though."

"They didn't start using them until after World War Two, when people started bringing jets onboard ships," Leigh reported; she and Sarah had been allowed to come up and sit in the guest chairs behind the pilot and co-pilot's seats. Jude was still crouched on the deck behind his friends' seats between the two American naval ensigns. Both Leigh and Sarah had been shocked – as the Dynajet was launching from Elmendorf – to see that the SAR technician had been able to keep his footing even after the tiltjet literally blasted into the sky like a rocket racing away from Cape Canaveral; even if the CSV-131 did have something in the way of inertia dampeners, they weren't the full-strength units fitted into a Star Flare or a Space Dhow. "Besides, the Zero is a very light aircraft. All you need is a good amount of wind and she'll take off . . . "

"One's launching!" Starr cut in.

Jude sighed. "Damn! About time, cool dudes! Wonderful day to sky-surf!"

Nikki groaned. "I swear, Jude . . . "

Starr laughed as Sarah and Leigh exchanged a knowing look. The master corporal pilot-apprentice then perked. "Okay, there goes number two!" she said as she tapped controls on a dataPADD fitted to the central control console between hers and Nikki's seats. "And number three just launched as well! Commencing life scans."

"Got it, bra," Jude said as he pulled out a tricorder from one of the pockets of his jumpsuit. Tapping a control on it to link it to the on-board dataPADD, he waited for the information to start filtering in. "Okay, dude number one in the lead Zeke is at physical age thirty-two, general excellent health all around, no signs of pathogens or other disease organisms inside of him – he's missing antibodies that would be in normal Japanese dudes his age – and he's got a faint trace of diamond meson in his blood. About five parts per million in his red blood cell count." A nod. "Dude number two in the left-side Zeke is at physical age twenty-five . . . " A whistle. "Man! That's really young if he's been stuck on ice for seventy years!"

"Pilot cadets that went to places like Tsuchiura were accepted as young as fifteen years old, Sergeant," Sarah explained. "If they aged at the same pace Avalonians do, the youngest pilot would physically be twenty-three right now."

"Gotcha, bra," Jude said as he tapped controls. "Okay, nothing wrong with that dude; his meson count is the same. Dude number three in the right-side Zeke is at physical age twenty-six and he's . . . " A pause. "Oh, that's not good."

"What?" Nikki demanded; she _hated_ it when her old friend talked like that.

"Looks like he's arcing up to a Type One myocardial infarction . . . "

Starr gasped. "A _**heart attack**_?"

"Yep! His RBCs are doin' okay, but if he gets a little stressed . . . "

"Keep an eye on him, Jude!" Nikki ordered.

"You got it, bra!"

Sarah and Leigh exchanged worried looks . . .

* * *

Now approaching from the west . . .

_There you are . . .!_

Shimizu Masao could only smile as he noted the dark shape in the sky almost running parallel to the _Yonaga_. Noting that he was well below the service ceiling limit for his Mitsubishi A6M2 – and quietly thanking the Kami that he didn't have to over-boost his plane's Nakajima Sakae 12 radial engine – he eased back on his yoke to pull his airplane up so he could slide closer to it and give it a good look over before he decided on what to do next. A quick glance off to both his sides revealed that his wingmates were in their proper positions, both distant enough to break free and evade if they were attacked, but also close enough so they could clearly see their flight leader's hand signals; radio silence had to be maintained. With that, he turned to gaze on the growing shape in the sky as it became elongated and roughly trapezoidal, with large engines – yes, they were jets of some sort – on the edge of the wings, which were remarkably _thick_ for such an airplane, not to mentioned a twin-rudder tail at the very aft end, that hanging over what appeared to be a cargo hatchway that had to be tall enough to allow a full-sized man to walk out of this plane standing straight!

_What is this thing?_

As the three Zero-sens approached the Dynajet, Shimizu's sharp eyes were quick to notice the paint job on the aircraft. With a mixture of black and dark green in a clearly camouflage pattern, it actually reminded the _Yonaga_'s air group commander of the forty-eight Nakajima B5N1 torpedo bombers that formed the carrier's 588th Torpedo Bomber Group. _Some sort of naval attack bomber of some sort?_ he wondered as he scanned the surface of the intruding airplane for any obvious sign of weapons assemblies. Noting nothing was there, he then frowned. _Reconnaissance aircraft, then . . .!_

He then blinked as his eyes fell on the underside of the wings.

The lower port wing had a number **613** written there.

The lower starboard wing had a black roundel ring with a shape in it.

Nodding, he then edged his A6M2 closer so he could get a good look at the insignia. While part of him was surprised that the unknown aircraft had not done anything to dodge away from the oncoming Japanese fighters – _Had they even seen us approach?_ the commander thought to himself – he relaxed himself as he gazed intently at the black insignia on the aircraft, noting that the insignia appeared to be . . .

. . . a stylised _maple leaf_?

_Canadian?_ Shimizu thought as he recalled the times Moroboshi Kyōsuke had told him about what news he had learned of that great yet almost-empty land to the north of America. And he himself had seen a similar insignia – without the surrounding black roundel ring around it – on airplanes he had watched fly into action when he had been in London on an observation mission before he had been assigned to _Yonaga_. A mission that – in the company of the man who had been the mastermind of the attack on Pearl Harbour, then-Lieutenant Commander Genda Minoru – allowed him to witness the desperate defence of Great Britain by the Royal Air Force against the huge masses of the German _Luftwaffe_ trying to clear the skies ahead of Operation: Sea Lion. A mission that also revealed a remarkable new player in the air war game, one armed with a unique aircraft.

The Canadian Air Cavalry Corps. And the Sopwith Canada So-48 Camel II.

Quickly making hand motions to Kitao and Doihara to pull safely away from him, Shimizu then tilted his fighter to the right so he could come up and parallel the strange aircraft from a distance away from the heated air that marked her jet exhaust; he didn't know how hot that air was and didn't want to risk exposing his Zero-sen to it. Soon enough, he was parallel to the stranger's starboard quarter, which revealed another maple leaf-in-a-ring roundel on the flanks of the aircraft, the word **Canada** in a serif-like font with a flag over the last "a" right above the wing roots, the words **Canadian Forces** and **Forces Canadiennes** beside a flag-like insignia underneath the wing roots, the flag – a maple leaf flanked by vertical bars on both sides – on the rudder over the serial number **131631** and another marking over the flag . . .!

Wait!

_I know that badge!_ Shimizu gaped as memories came back . . .

* * *

_Royal Air Force Station North Weald (twenty kilometres northeast of the City of London), Sunday 8 September 1940, late morning . . ._

_ "«How many did you get this time, Major?»"_

_ The cigar-smoking pilot blinked on hearing that curious question, and then she – disguised quite well as a "he" thanks to her slender body, Lieutenant Commanders Shimizu Masao and Genda Minoru had been amused to note when they had first met this brave woman fighting alongside her fellow Canadians – smirked as she slid down the left wing of her So-48. A low-wing monoplane fighter that could also carry bombs and anti-tank weapons to deal with anything on the ground, the Camel II looked like – from a distance – its World War One namesake. Of course, no Sopwith F.1 Camel ever flew with the upper wing gone, the leading edge of the lower wing swept slightly back at a five-degree angle from the fore-and-aft line of the fuselage, the trailing edge set perpendicular to that fore-and-aft line from the outer edge to just two feet before the wing root (where it curved back into the fuselage) and the tailplanes forming a perfect triangle like what had been fitted on the Fokker Dr-1 triplane of the Great War. Also, the So-48 had an enclosed canopy and fully-retractable undercarriage that folded forward and outward from the fuselage under the cockpit, each arm splaying out like the gear fitted onto the Supermarine Spitfire or the Messerschmitt Bf-109 to allow all sorts of ordnance or fuel tanks to be secured to the underside of the wings._

_ Atop that, said fighter didn't bear the Royal Air Force's blue-white-and-red cockade roundel insignia . . . much less the Royal Canadian Air Force's modified version that substituted a red maple leaf for the red centre ball similar to the _Hinomaru_ worn on Japanese aircraft. This plane – and all those like her on the airfield located in Epping Forest in the southwest part of County Essex – had black maple leaves on their wings and fuselages, along with alpha-numeric codes on the fuselages indicative of which regiment and squadron they belonged to. In the case of Major Dean Raeburn's airplane, it was _**X-B01**_, which indicated the Officer Commanding B Squadron of the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment, Canadian Army Service Force._

_ "«Four He-111s on the ground, plus two Ju-87s,»" the major stated in fluent Japanese as she waved the two Imperial Navy pilots towards the tent which served as her private field office. "«That's six less airplanes for Göring's boys to use against London or some other poor city.»" A shake of the head. "«Stupid decision to make.»"_

_ "«What do you mean?»" Genda asked._

_ "«The dumb fool almost had us – Yes! Even us! – before he or _Herr_ Hitler ordered everyone to switch to city bombing, Minoru-san,»" Dean stated as she gazed on the damaged aircraft that formed most of the four sabre troops of B Squadron; the latest sweep against German airfields in the Pas-de-Calais had only been conducted by five working airplanes cobbled together from Squadron Headquarters and 22 Troop. A sigh. "«The people in London's East End, I doubt, didn't appreciate having their homes wiped out, but it gives us all the time to get the planes repaired and back airborne again. Not to mention head in and start hitting them on their airfields like they hit us before yesterday.»" The three air cavalry regiments of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division – augmented with the Malden Dragoons (8th Canadian Cavalry) of the 2nd Division – had been busying themselves chopping up aircraft and other vulnerable targets on the ground across occupied France and Belgium while the "blue suits" (as the Canadian air cavalrymen called their counterparts in the Royal Air Force and affiliated units) were duelling it out with the _Luftwaffe _in the skies over southern England. And while it wasn't as dramatic as what people such as Squadron Leader Douglas Bader – who had shocked the visiting Japanese naval officers when they learned he was a _**double leg amputee**_ thanks to a terrible accident in 1931! – did as commanding officer of 242 "All Canadian" Squadron at RAF Station Duxford in Cambridgeshire, it was just as vital._

_ "«How soon will your regiment be at full strength, Dean-san?»" Shimizu asked._

_ A cloud of tobacco fumes escaped her; Dean had explained her willingness to smoke Dutch Masters cigars this way: "You have to have one good vice in your life to make you truly human!" "«Probably by next Saturday. Of course, _Herr _Göring and his friends across the big ditch to the south of us have to be party to that agreement.»"_

_ Both men laughed, and then they perked as a slightly older man came over to her. "Major Raeburn," Lieutenant Colonel Anton Smith, commanding officer of the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry, called out before he nodded at the visiting Japanese officers. "Ah! Making the rounds of the base again, gentlemen?" he asked as he acknowledged the junior-ranking officers' salutes with one of his own. "Learn something new, I hope."_

_ "We're learning quite a bit, sir," Shimizu stated in accented English._

_ Smith grinned. "Excellent. Our hosts might disapprove of your country's current actions in China and elsewhere, but I can understand why people might not like having others dictate things to them because of some stupid belief in racial or cultural superiority." A shake of the head. "'White man's burden,' indeed. Stupid way of thinking if you ask me." He then nodded to the visiting Japanese officers. "Have a good day, gentlemen. I'll see you both at dinner tonight."_

_ Dean and the visiting officers saluted as he headed off. "«He's a good leader of men,»" Genda stated, reverting back to Japanese. "«He'll take his regiment far.»"_

_ "«They're already discussing the idea of allowing a Commander of Division Air Cavalry to advise the GOC,»" the Canadian major reported. The commanding officers of the three flying regiments in the 1st Canadian Infantry Division each responded directly to the commander of the infantry brigades they nominally supported; in the case of the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment, it was seen as subordinate to the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade – composing the active service battalions of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and the Loyal Edmonton Regiment and a ground defence platoon of the Lorne Scots (Peel, Dufferin and Halton Regiment) – now under the command of Brigadier George Pearkes. It was a rather clumsy system, Genda and Shimizu had learned . . . though with the 1st Division's units under operational control of the Royal Air Force in the defence of Britain and directly responding to the commanders of local air formations – in the Saskatchewans' case, the Eleventh Fighter Group – such really wasn't proving to be much of a problem given how desperate the British were to get flying machines that could shoot down enemy aircraft. Not to mention destroy them on the ground before they could get airborne and cause harm. "«He'll probably get more pips on his shoulders soon enough.»"_

_ "«What about you?»" Shimizu asked._

_ Dean gazed at him, giving him a view of the Roman "X" with three wheat garb insignia of her regiment on her beret. "«I go where I'm needed, Masao-san.»"_

_ "«As do we all,»" Genda noted . . ._

* * *

_The 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment . . ._

Nodding in appreciation at the badge of one of the most successful units in the history of the Canadian army tactical air service – with the St. Edward's Crown over the Roman "X" that formed the centre-piece of the badge indicating that a queen now ruled over the Dominion of Canada in lieu of a king – Shimizu then took a deep breath.

Now was the time to decide.

The orders given by Vice-Admiral Fujita Hiroshi to all the pilots aboard _Yonaga_ were explicit in this matter: Under NO circumstances were anyone who was not Japanese allowed to spot their ship or airplanes, and then find some way to transmit that contact to enemy authorities. When those security orders were first devised before _Yonaga_ had deployed to Sano-wan, the Dominion of Canada was just ten years free of direct British legal influence thanks to the Statute of Westminster, the law which transferred all government controls over Canadian affairs – especially foreign affairs – to Ottawa's hands. Atop that, _Yonaga_'s radios did pick up the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's s report on the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution in the spring of 1982. While Canada was allied with America in the North American Aerospace Defence Command system and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, that nation clearly did not threaten Japan in any way, shape or form. And the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment – unlike its sister regiment, le 20e Fusiliers (du Québec-Nord) du Canada (RCCAC), who had an active service battalion deployed to Hawai'i as part of the 8th Canadian Air Cavalry Brigade to participate in the Battle of Midway – had never been involved in actions against Japanese forces during the Greater East Asia War.

So . . .

He glanced to his left. Kitao was gazing expectantly his way, close enough to reveal the concerned look on the naval air pilot's face. As a naval air pilot 1st class in the Imperial Japanese Navy, Kitao Kenji was the equivalent of a pilot warrant officer class 1 in the Canadian Air Cavalry Corps, like the regimental sergeant-major of the Saskatchewan Cavalry at the time of the Battle of Britain, John Ebrill. Remembering the jovial farmer from Moose Jaw who was a maniac when it came to flying his Camel II, Shimizu felt himself smile in remembrance. The man could drink whiskey like it was soda pop . . . and still gut Bf-109s with an eagle eye that never steered him wrong. _Pity that Ky__ō__suke-san never had Warrant Officer Ebrill's eyes_, Shimizu mused as he turned to look at his other wingman. _If he could see like John-san could, he . . .!_

Shimizu then gasped on seeing Doihara slump down on his control stick.

"_**SH**__**Ō**__**JI!**_"

Before he could think of what to do next, the Canadian airplane seemed to leap up and dance OVER the cowling of his Zero-sen . . . as the aft doors opened . . .

* * *

Jude Lizowski was already on the move.

As soon as his tricorder had locked in on the sudden instance of ischaemia hitting the third Zero-sen pilot's heart which caused the muscle to seize up, he was sprinting aft from the Dynajet's cockpit, grabbing his parachute and medical bag backpack from a wall rack as he keyed the controls to open the back doors of the tactical transport. At the same time, Nikki Wong – after being given a warning by Starr Hampshire – moved to slide the CSV-131 to position itself right over said A6M2's front end, ensuring the aft loading ramp was right over the fighter's cockpit and that the keel of her fuselage didn't get anywhere close to the Zero-sen's propeller arc. As the door opened, Jude snared the end of a bungee cord line tied to the main support frame at the ceiling of the cargo compartment to snap it onto his safety belt . . . and then he leapt into the sky over six kilometres above the waters of the Bering Sea.

"_**YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO . . .!**_"

* * *

Hearing his wingmate's engine backfire suddenly, Shimizu's head snapped to his left to make him gaze on Kitao. Noting the gaping shock on the pilot's face and his frantically pointing off to the commander's starboard, the air group leader then turned to look . . . before his eyes nearly bugged out of their skull in disbelief.

"_**SACRED BUDDHA!**_"

As the two Zero-sen pilots watched in stunned disbelief, a man in an orange-red jumpsuit with a backpack and other equipment tied on him literally LEAPT OFF the Canadian aircraft to soar right down towards Doihara's airplane, the only thing preventing him from falling to either the sea or his death being a slender line of some sort of fabric tied to his airplane's main frames. And given the very short distance between the jump-off point and the possible landing point over Doihara's canopy ahead of the radio mast, the fact that the man was able to straddle-land right on the glass canopy without much impact force was a miracle in and of itself. _I hope that didn't hurt him too much!_ Shimizu – who was utterly stunned by such a show of acrobatics at such a high altitude – then thought as he felt his own thighs squeeze tight . . .

* * *

"How is he, Jude?"

"Give me a sec', bra! Gotta get the dude's canopy open!" Jude yelled back through his microphone over the howl of the wind whipping past him – fortunately for both him and the hapless Japanese pilot he was trying to save, the Dynajet had only been going about 140 kilometres per hour in a lazy circle so it could stay close to _Yonaga_ without going too far off course – as he moved to wedge his feet tight into the sides of the A6M2 while he moved to get that canopy opened. It was quite easy; the canopy hadn't been latched shut from the inside by the pilot, who was now shaking badly as he tried to thump his heart and make the awful pain overwhelming him go away. As soon as the canopy was opened – causing a blast of frigid air to flood the cockpit and make the shuddering Doihara Shōji look up in confusion – Jude then leaned in to gaze into the pilot's fluttering eyes. "Hey, cool dude! Having a problem?"

The ensign blinked. _I have gone mad . . .!_ he weakly thought to himself as this blond-haired, blue-eyed Western man with a touch of a goatee under his lips pulled out some sort of device from somewhere to flip it open like a book and move to pass it over him. A curious ringing-like noise echoed in Doihara's ears for a moment before the stranger turned the device to look at it for a moment. He then nodded before slipping the device away, and then he drew out a rod-like device with a pointed end from another place before reaching in to jab it into the ensign's exposed neck. A _hsssssss!_ echoed in Doihara's ears as something seemed to flood him from that point to every end of his arms and legs, not to mention his head. As the pain ebbed away, the rod-like device – _Some sort of syringe?_ Doihara wondered – was put away and the book-like device was brought out again and opened. More of that weird ringing for a minute, and then the strange man nodded.

"Okay, cool dude!" he said – _In Japanese?_ Doihara wondered – as he gave the ensign a reassuring look. "Like it or not, you're gonna be grounded for a bit! I'm no doc, but I'll bet that's what your doc'll say! I gave you some stimulant to let you land on the Big 'Y' down below, but you won't be able to finish your patrol with your buds in the shape you're in right now!" He then tapped a thin rod-like device that was wrapped in front of his face from his headset. "Yo, bra! Can you get on these dudes' frequency so we can talk to his buds and tell them what's wrong?"

"Hang on, Jude!" a faint woman's voice called back.

Doihara was speechless. _I have truly gone mad . . .!_

* * *

"_Yonaga_ combat air patrol leader, this is Garb Foxtrot-Five-Two."

Shimizu gasped in stunned shock on hearing that woman's voice – in _Japanese_, no less! – break out over the earphones on his headset. As per standing orders, his flight was under total radio silence, but could still listen in to transmissions if they came in. Just stopping himself from flipping the switch on his control board to allow him to transmit back, he then blinked as that voice said, "We are aware that you're under total radio silence, but we know you can hear me. Your wingmate just had a heart attack. My search and rescue technician just gave him a little stimulant to help him get back to your ship. He's in a bad way, but he'll make it home if you get him to go down there now. Waggle your wings if you understand that!"

Blinking, he then tapped both his feet on the pedals, which made the Zero-sen rock a bit. "Okay, we saw that," the woman called back. "We'll stay with your man to make sure he makes it back aboard the _Yonaga_. You have a good flight, alright?"

Shimizu – who was completely flabbergasted by the show of simple _friendliness_ the Canadian was demonstrating to him – found himself wagging his wing again. He then looked right at Doihara's Zero-sen, which looked rather odd with a man in a red jumpsuit sitting on the CANOPY of all things, a slender cord serving as some sort of safety line between himself and his home aircraft. As the ensign gave him a bleary look full of fatigue and pain, the commander sighed. He then made several hand signs to pass on the order to return to the carrier. Seeing Doihara nod, he then relaxed himself. _What is the Admiral going to say when I get back aboard?_ he wondered.

"Okay, he got the message," that woman's voice echoed in his earphones. "My SAR tech will ride down with him. We'll stay close in case he splashes down."

And with that, the man riding Doihara's fighter unlatched the safety rope from his backpack, then drew out a leather strap to hook it onto his belt, then single-handedly wrapped it around the radio mast. _That won't stay there long if Sh__ō__ji has to make some hard manoeuvres_, Shimizu mused to himself as the stranger – a "search and rescue technician," the woman currently aboard the Canadian airplane had called him . . . whatever _that_ meant! – leaned into the cockpit to say something to the ensign. Seeing Doihara weakly nod, the commander then breathed out as the other man's Zero-sen banked away from the rest of his flight, turning to slowly dive down towards the sea below. At the same time, the Canadian plane banked over to follow the descending Japanese fighter back to its mother ship, flying with the controlled grace of an albatross that caught a perfect wind to allow it to soar over the vast endless sea.

_Is Ky__ō__suke-san right . . .?_ the air group commander wondered to himself . . .

* * *

"Um . . . Pilot Sergeant . . .?"

"Yeah?" Nikki asked.

"Is this a good idea?" Sarah asked.

The Chinese-Canadian native of Toronto sighed. "Personally, I don't know," she admitted as Starr came back into the cockpit after she had secured the bungee line before it caught something and got ripped out of the Dynajet, which would make the aircraft structures technicians in Maintenance Squadron very upset at her for allowing such damage to occur. "But Jude's like any SAR tech in the Forces. It's their motto: 'That Others May Live.' He doesn't care that the man in that Zeke probably has orders to shoot down any plane that gets close to his ship. All he cares about is that the guy just had a heart attack and he isn't going to make it back to his relatives back in Japan. Nothing makes Jude more upset than allowing something like that to happen."

The ensign blinked on hearing that, and then she sighed as she gazed on Leigh. The pilot shrugged in return. "It's her plane, Sarah," she warned.

Sarah sighed . . .

* * *

Minutes later . . .

"Admiral!"

Fujita blinked on hearing that shout, and then he turned to look. "What is it?"

"One of the fighters is coming back, sir!" the lookout declared, pointing.

The admiral walked over to the port side of the pilotage platform to gaze aft, his eyes quickly locking in on the silver shape now approaching _Yonaga_ from astern. "He might be in trouble! Get the damage control party ready!" he ordered.

"Hai!" Kawamoto Masao said as he headed off the pilotage.

As the men on the exposed pilotage watched, maintenance crew quickly broke out fire-fighting equipment and spread it out over the central part of the vast flight deck. Given _Yonaga_'s seven-decade imprisonment in Sano-wan, the crew had been trained to an unusually fine degree when it came to all sorts of damage control scenarios, even coming up with new techniques that would have served them well had they actually fought the Americans at battles such as Midway and Leyte Gulf. As the arrestor cables were pulled taunt and ready, a crash barrier was raised just aft of the island; the final safety net required to prevent the oncoming Zero-sen from flying off the bow of the ship and plunging into the sea to get run down. By then, the fighter was just a minute away from landing. As Fujita and the others with him looked, a shocked cry escaped Ogawa Gorō. "There's some man riding on the back on that A6M!" he gasped, pointing.

Fujita himself looked through his binoculars. Sure enough, a man in a red jumpsuit was riding on the very back of the Zero-sen. The admiral was quick to note that this fellow – a Westerner by his hair colour – had lashed himself to the radio mast behind the cockpit and had his arms inside the canopy; no doubt, he was holding onto the pilot's seat so that he wouldn't get blown off. Before he could bark out orders to have the ship's massive forest of 25 millimetre guns swing on the approaching fighter, a voice called out "Admiral!" as Moroboshi Kyōsuke ran onto the pilotage.

"What is it?" the admiral demanded.

The junior communications officer pointed aft. "Sir, that man that's on that fighter now is – what I believe – a Canadian search and rescue technician. He helped save the pilot – I think it's Doihara-shōi – from a _heart attack_!" As the whole bridge crew gasped in shock, Kyōsuke added, "I overheard it on the fighter frequency. The pilot of a Canadian – again, I believe them to be Canadians – aircraft that might have been intercepted by Shimizu-chūsa's patrol. She called out to announce that one of the pilots suffered a heart attack and that her search and rescue technician – some sort of special rescue medic, I believe – would help him."

Hearing that, Fujita gaped. "Sacred Buddha! That one must be the most insane man alive! RIDING an A6M down from the skies like a _horse_ to land on a _carrier_?"

"Do you wish to communicate with the Canadian aircraft?"

The admiral grimaced . . .

"ADMIRAL! Unknown aircraft approaching!"

Everyone looked . . .

"What is THAT?" Ogawa demanded, pointing.

Kyōsuke looked through his binoculars, and then he gaped. "Some sort of transport craft . . . "

"What type?" Fujita asked.

The sub-lieutenant bit his lip. "I think a Dynajet. The CSV-131, Admiral."

"Proof?"

"The pilot identified herself by the code-phrase 'Garb Foxtrot-Five-Two,' sir," Kyōsuke answered. "Isn't a garb – a wheat sheaf – part of the coat of arms of the Canadian province of _Saskatchewan_? And the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment?"

Ogawa gaped. "Raeburn-shōsa's regiment . . .?"

"Yes!" Fujita affirmed as he focused his binoculars on the approaching Dynajet – whose general shape made him blink; _How in the name of the Kami can such a thing FLY?_ – as it slowed down to do a slow pass by the _Yonaga_'s port side. "Order all gunners to NOT aim on the approaching aircraft . . . ah!" he called out as he focused on the oncoming Zero-sen. "It IS Doihara! Gods, how could he still be flying?"

By then, the A6M2 was just a hundred metres from touchdown. Watching the growing carrier approach, Jude Lizowski whooped as a pale-skinned Doihara Shōji – who now had both hands on the control stick to ensure he didn't either crash into the deck or overshoot the safety barrier – guided his plane in, right at the point where the Sakae engine was about to stall. The fighter – whose landing gear had been opened up as soon as she entered the glide-path for the landing – cleared the fantail of the flight deck by about a metre, then dropped down ahead of the aft-most wire, its arrestor hook snaring the third of the nine metal strings to bring it right to a jarring halt just twenty metres short of the crash barrier. Instantly, the deck crew sprinted into action as an aviation mate 1st class leapt onto the port wing to reach into the cockpit to shut down the engine. "Ensign!" he then called out as he stared at the pale Doihara. "Are you alright? What happened to you?" He then turned on the blond man who had ridden the Zero-sen right down to the carrier. "What did you . . .?"

"No, Jirō-san . . . " Doihara gasped. "He saved my life . . . "

Silence.

Shimada Jirō blinked before he relaxed as the moaning Canadian moved to sit himself up. "Man, that was a serious _**rush**_ . . .!" he said – in clear _Japanese_ to the gathering of deck crew, seaman guards and junior officers now surrounding Doihara Shōji's Zero-sen, which made all of them gape – and then he turned to gaze on the senior aviation mate. "Oh! Sorry about that!" Yanking off his headset, he reached into the pack wrapped around his front to pull out his blaze orange beret with the crowned and winged interlaced "TDG" badge of the Queen's Own Toronto Dragoon Guards to put it on his head before saluting the _Kyokujitsu-ki_ flying off the mainmast on the island ahead of the ship's outward-tilted funnel. "Permission to come aboard?"

Shimada blinked, and then he smiled. "Granted, Sergeant Lizowski," he said with a bow of his head; he had seen the three chevron-and-maple leaf rank insignia on the mottled green camouflage epaulette slip-ons on the man's shoulders – that atop the unit flash **QOTDG** in soft gold – and his family name on a cloth nametag over his right breast, the left one bearing the crowned parachute wings of his trade on a black field.

"Jude! Are you okay?"

Everyone gasped on hearing that woman's voice as Jude winced. "Mind if I answer her?" the SAR technician then asked as he gazed on Shimada.

The aviation mate dumbly nodded. Smiling, Jude slipped the headset on and then tapped the microphone. "Relax, Pilot Dudette!" he called out as medical personnel – led by Hospital Orderly 1st Class Horiguchi Eiichi – came onto the deck with a stretcher so they could help the pale Doihara out of his plane. "The cool dude made it down and the medics are looking at him right now. I'll be off the air for a bit."

A sigh of relief. "You stay safe, you crazy idiot!" Nikki Wong called back.

"Yeah, chill, bra! I'll be fine! Talk to you later."

With that, he flipped off the microphone as the Dynajet – which had slowed to a hover beside _Yonaga_ as Doihara's Zero-sen had landed, her engines swinging to almost vertical mode to keep it close to the great carrier while maintaining some forward motion – then accelerated into the sky and assumed horizontal flight for the trip back to Elmendorf-Richardson. "What happened to him?" Horiguchi demanded as he moved to open up the heavily breathing ensign's jacket to get at his chest.

"Heart attack; he's got an atherosclerosis plaque block in the left coronary artery," Jude reported as he pulled out his tricorder. Flipping it open, he tapped the controls to project a 3-D image of the organ in question. "Looks like he tends to binge out too much on stuff fried with oil; the plaque build-up in his arteries is pretty bad."

The elderly senior hospital orderly gazed on the machine, his eyes wide with awe and delight on seeing the actual damage to the ensign's heart without the necessary of conducting invasive surgery on the man, and then he nodded. "Well, he'll be grounded for a while so we can get that out of him," he stated. "Help me get him out of here."

"You got it!"

And with that, the elderly Japanese naval hospital orderly and the young Canadian search and rescue technician got to work . . .

* * *

Watching this from the pilotage platform, Fujita Hiroshi shook his head. He knew that warriors from Japan weren't the only ones who could act very brave and perform incredible feats when pressed to the limit. And while Canadians didn't have the long martial history of their British predecessors or their American cousins, they could – when pushed to those limits – do extraordinary things. The Second Battle of Ypres in the spring of 1915 – when the Germans made use of poison gas for the first time in a military action – had shown that beyond a shadow of a doubt; while French and other troops had fled from the poisonous clouds of chlorine gas that seeped over their trenches on 22 April of that year, the young men of the 1st Canadian Division had stood their ground, using urine-soaked handkerchiefs to stay alive and free of the deadly gas, to keep their place and blunt the attack. As he saw the young man help Horiguchi Eiichi pull the dazed Doihara Shōji out of his machine, he sighed before turning to Ogawa Gorō. "See to it that man is quartered in a room befitting his rank."

The captain nodded. "Hai."

"Also make sure he understands why we must maintain communications silence."

Ogawa nodded again. "Hai. Excuse me, please."

He then headed off the bridge. Fujita sighed before he gazed on Moroboshi Kyōsuke. "It appears I may soon owe you a deep apology, Kyōsuke-san."

"We'll have our proof one way or another, sir," the younger man mused as he gave the admiral an apologetic look. "I also have had my doubts."

A nod. "Indeed we will. Go help Gorō-san, will you?"

"Hai. Excuse me, please."

And with that, the junior communications officer headed off the pilotage as Fujita took a deep breath before gazing out at the sea ahead of _Yonaga_ . . .

_**To be continued . . .**_

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES:**

1) For those unaware of the series, _6teen_ is a Canadian-produced animation series that ran from 2004-10 on Teletoon in Canada and Nickelodeon in the United States. Based on the adventures of six teenagers who hang out at the Galleria Mall (itself based on Toronto's Eaton Centre), the series is a slice-of-life story really no different than _Azumanga Daioh_. **Nicole** (or **Nikki**) **Wong** is the sarcastic realist of the group while **Jude Lizowski** is the easygoing extreme sportsman. **Starr** was a minor guest-star in several episodes; I took her real name from her voice actress. As the series started in 2004 when the main characters were sixteen years old, I had them graduate from high school in 2006 and get on with their lives. Of course, as I really like characters such as Nikki, I had her appear in this story. Jude, given his love of skateboarding and other such extreme sports, seemed perfect to pursue a career as a **Search and Rescue Technician** (**SAR Tech** for short), a specially-trained parachute-qualified rescue first aide specialist that normally deploys with special transport and rescue squadrons based across Canada.

2) The **Bombardier CSV-131 Dynajet** is named in tribute to the **Canadair CL-84 "Dynavert"** (militarily known as the **CX-131**) experimental tiltwing twin-engine V/STOL aircraft, which first came out in 1965 and was finally retired in 1974 after four prototypes were constructed. Given that Air Cavalry regiments are designed to be army tactical aviation support units, having something like the CSV-131 to act as troop transport and medical evacuation vehicles seems logical.

3) The **Queen's Own Toronto Dragoon Guards (RCCAC)** (short-formed as **QOTDG**) is another of the Air Cavalry regiments I came up with to use in my stories. In the history of the unit, it was first founded in 1916 as the "12th Air Reconnaissance Battalion" of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, fighting as tactical support for the 4th Canadian Division until the end of the Great War in 1918. The only Household Cavalry unit of the Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry, the Guards assumed its present name in 1954. In the order of precedence (the ranking order indicating which unit marches first in a parade), the Guards is the senior regiment of the Militia Air Cavalry and ranked seventh overall when the Regular Force regiments are included. The Guards' hat badge is an interlaced "DG" (for "Dragoon Guards") over the letter "T" ("Toronto"), the whole topped with the Royal Crown with golden wings extending out to both sides of the interlaced letters, the whole over a scroll with the words **Ich Dien** (based on the German phrase _Ich dienne_ ["I Serve"]), the official motto of the Prince of Wales (who would serve as the Guards' Colonel-in-Chief, the royal patron of the regiment). Regiment Headquarters and all squadrons are based at **Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport** (International Air Transport Association code **YTZ**), located at the west end of the largest of the Toronto Islands, Centre Island, southwest of the C.N. Tower. In peacetime, the regiment is part of the **32nd Canadian Brigade Group**. When mobilised for a general war, the regiment would form part of the **20th Canadian Mechanised Brigade**, a sub-formation of the **2nd Canadian Division**.

4) Members of the Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry normally wear a buff gold beret after initially qualifying in their trade as an air cavalry trooper after graduating from Air Cavalry School at Dundurn; the colour is the same shade as the rank insignia worn by members of American cavalry regiments during the Civil War. When the regiments were switched to armoured service, they were forced to change to black berets. Jude wears a blaze orange (sometimes called "safety orange") beret (the shade is very close to a crimson red) as he is a qualified search and rescue technician. Standard Canadian Forces beret colours are green (for Army personnel), medium azure "RAF" blue (for Air Force personnel) or black (for Armoured personnel as noted above as well as members of the Navy). Paratroopers wear maroon berets, special forces wear tan brown berets and military police wear red berets. People working on U.N. peacekeeping missions wear berets in U.N. blue while people working with the Multinational Force and Observers watching over the Israeli-Egyptian frontier wear berets in a terracotta shade.

5) **Land Forces Central Area**/**Joint Task Force (Central)** is the senior command formation for all military units in Ontario. Originally tasked to control just the Army forces based there, the organisation was expanded in 2006 to take control of all Navy and Air Force units also based in the province as a component of **Canada Command** (the operational command of the Canadian Forces that controls all domestic military operations). As JTF(C), this formation is the operational controller of the crew of H.M.C.S. _Haida_ and her affiliated units when they are actually at Canadian Forces Base Niagara. LFCA/JTF(C) headquarters is located in the Downsview part of the former Toronto borough of North York, on the grounds that were once used by **Canadian Forces Base Toronto** before it was closed down in 1996.

6) Reservists in the Canadian Armed Forces are paid according to whatever type of service they are employed in. **Class A** service is the once-a-week evening parade at the local armouries; one must do 14 days of service in a year to maintain their status as a member of a unit. **Class B** service is non-operational full-time employment; this usually extends up to six months at a time. **Class C** service is operational full-time employment; Nikki and Jude, as they are now deployed with the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment in Alaska as support staff to NORAD operations, are paid on Class C service (as were the reserve personnel who went to Afghanistan as part of Operation: Athena between 2003-11). In the universe of this story, Avalonian-Canadians who parade without pay are seen as being on "**Class D**" service.

7) An Air Cavalry regiment (which is roughly the size of an infantry battalion) is split into the following sub-units:

**Regimental Headquarters Squadron** (command and control, signals, airfield operations, intelligence and mobile radar)**  
A (Alpha) Squadron** (first operational squadron, split into squadron headquarters troop and four "sabre" troops numbered 11-14, each troop composed of four CSF-148 Camel IIIs with two-men crews)**  
B (Bravo) Squadron** (second operational squadron, split into squadron headquarters and 21-24 Troops)**  
C (Charlie) Squadron** (third operational squadron, split into squadron headquarters and 31-34 Troops)**  
D (Delta) Squadron** (fourth operational squadron, split into squadron headquarters and 41-44 Troops)**  
E (Echo) Squadron** (regimental reconnaissance squadron, split into squadron headquarters and 51-54 Troops, each troop composed of four CSF-148R Snipe II observation/reconnaissance aircraft with two-men crews)**  
F (Foxtrot) Squadron** (regimental utility squadron, split into squadron headquarters, four troops [numbered 61-64] of six CSV-131 Dynajets each for utility transport duties [three-man crews], and 65 Troop with six CSV-131s for medevac use [three/four-man crews])**  
Maintenance Squadron** (the regiment's aircraft maintenance teams)**  
Support Squadron** (the regiment's in-house combat service support group, including medical team, regimental orderly room, supply group, ground vehicle transport group and ground vehicle maintenance group)

8) The **Mercedes-Benz Geländewagen** (often known as the **G-Class**) is the cross-country vehicle used by the Canadian Forces in the light utility vehicle role since 2003.

9) In Imperial Japanese Naval terminology, an aircraft carrier's on-board air group was referred to as a **Naval Air Flotilla**, which was divided into operation groups depending on mission type, then split down into individual squadrons. _Yonaga_, being such a large ship, carries 144 aircraft split evenly into a group of 48 Mitsubishi A6M2 fighters, a group of 48 Aichi D3A1 dive bombers and a group of 48 Nakajima B5N1 torpedo bombers. Each of _Yonaga_'s flying groups are split in turn into four flying squadrons of twelve. Each of those squadrons are split into four three-ship flights.

10) Translations: **Hachimaki** – literally "curled bowl;" **Senninbari** – literally "thousand-person stitches;" **Yasukuni** – literally "Pacifying the Nation" (taken from a phrase borrowed from the classical Chinese work _Zuǒ Zhuàn_ ["Commentary of Zuǒ"]), this is the name of the controversial shrine located in Tōkyō's Chiyoda Ward northwest of the Imperial Palace where the kami of Japan's war dead are honoured; **GOC** – General Officer Commanding, the title used for a general in command of a division or army corps; **Ischaemia** – from the Greek phrase meaning "thinning blood," this is the medical condition where the blood supply is restricted to a certain part of the human body (the specific affliction that hit Doihara Shōji is **atherosclerosis**, the closing off of blood vessels thanks to the build-up of cholesterol-type plaque against the artery walls); **Kyokujitsu-ki** – the name of the Japanese "rising sun" war ensign.

11) **le 20e Fusiliers (du Québec-Nord) du Canada (RCCAC)** (the regimental name translates to "20th [Northern Québec] Fusiliers of Canada;" the term "fusilier" once identified soldiers armed with a flintlock musket called a "fusil" who started appearing around 1680) (short-form title: **20e FUS C**) is the name of the Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry's senior French-speaking unit. Formed originally in 1936 and seen as descent of the "14th Canadian Cavalry (Air)" that fought briefly at the end of the Great War, the Fusiliers were one of several units to deploy two separate units for service in World War Two: the "1re Régiment de 20e Fusiliers (du Québec-Nord) du Canada" for service in Europe as part of the **1st Canadian Infantry Division** and the "2e Régiment de 20e Fusiliers (du Québec-Nord) du Canada" for home defence as part of the **8th Canadian Infantry Division** and later service in the Pacific Theatre of World War Two as an element of the **8th Canadian Air Cavalry Brigade** (known as the "**Canadian Pacific Club**" to those who were part of it). Like the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment, le 20e Fusiliers were allowed to form both a full-time Regular Force regiment and a part-time Reserve (Militia) Force regiment after World War Two. Both units were reduced to nil strength in 1970 after Unification and were reformed only recently thanks to the Avalonians. The Regular Force Regiment is a part of _5e Groupe-Brigade Mechanise du Canada_ (**5th Canadian Mechanised Brigade Group**) based out of **Canadian Forces Base Valcartier**, near Québec City. The Militia Regiment, known as **le 20e Fusiliers (du Québec-Nord) du Canada (RCCAC) (Milice)**, is based out of the town of Chibougamau in north-central Québec, as a unit of _35e Groupe-Brigade du Canada_ (**35th Canadian Brigade Group**, the militia in southern, eastern and northern Québec) and would be mobilised as a part of _25e Brigade-Blindée du Canada_ (**25th Canadian Armoured Brigade**), a formation of _3e Division du Canada_ (**3rd Canadian Division**) if mobilised for a general war.

12) **Genda Minoru** (1904-89) and **Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader** (1910-82) were real fighter pilots before and during World War Two. The former, who rose to the rank of captain in the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Service, was the primary planner of the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. He finished the war with over 3,000 flying hours and managed to avoid being asked to fly as a suicide pilot. After World War Two, he joined the Japanese Air Self-Defence Forces and would eventually rise to the rank of general before retiring in 1962. The latter, whom rose to the rank of group captain in the Royal Air Force, lost both his lower legs in an accident after an aerobatic accident on 14 December 1931, then flew the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire in defence of Britain until he was shot down on 9 August 1941 over France. He retired from the Royal Air Force in 1946.


	6. Thoughts of Home

Tomobiki, the Moroboshi home, before dawn (Alaska time: before noon) . . .

"_**WHAT HAPPENED?**_"

A flustered man in the CADPAT uniform of a lieutenant colonel in the Canadian Army tried not to look too embarrassed as he stared at a bleary-eyed Moroboshi Hiromi; the reborn emperor had been woken up by a flash signal through her dataPADD from Elmendorf-Richardson via H.M.C.S. _Haida_ with some rather shocking news. "It's true, Madame Director," Lieutenant Colonel Michael Crawford, the commanding officer of the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment (Air), stated from his temporary quarters at the American air base outside Anchorage. "One of the pilots involved with _Yonaga_'s first combat air patrol that launched three hours ago suffered a heart attack when they came close to a Dynajet from F Squadron that my regiment had put up to help keep watch on her. A SAR Tech from my unit – he was actually on Class C callout from the Queen's Own Toronto Dragoon Guards – that was aboard the Dynajet at the time jumped out to board the Zero-sen in mid-flight, then helped the pilot get back aboard the _Yonaga_. We haven't heard from him since he communicated with the pilot of the aircraft, but from what Nikki – that's the pilot's name, Pilot Sergeant Nikki Wong – reported, the SAR Tech didn't sound in any ways frightened. He actually sounded confident that the wounded pilot would make it through." A sigh. "He did what he was taught to do, Madame Director."

"Colonel, remember your history," Hiromi stated, inwardly wincing at what THIS extra complication concerning the _Yonaga_ would unleash. "Soldiers that fought for the late Shōwa Emperor in the Greater East Asia War were rather quite vicious when it came to dealing with enemy forces, especially those who actually surrendered to them. You are aware of what happened to the poor soldiers of the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada that were deployed to Hong Kong in 1941, aren't you?"

A nod. "I am aware of that, Madame Director. But we got our revenge for what happened to those men from Midway all the way to the final battles around Japan." Crawford then smirked as he crossed his arms and gave her a knowing look.

Hiromi nodded. From the start of 1942 to VJ Day in 1945, nine air cavalry regiments from Canada, formed in three brigades, were deployed to provide additional tactical aviation support to the American armed forces, usually accompanying units of either the 1st or the 2nd Marine Divisions on island-hopping invasions spanning from Guadalcanal to the final landings on Okinawa before the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Three of those regiments – the 2nd Regiment of le 20e Fusiliers (du Québec-Nord) du Canada and the 1st and 2nd Regiments of the 15th Canadian Cavalry from New Brunswick (the former being renamed "Carleton Light Infantry" and the latter renamed "York Scottish Regiment" after their deployment to Hawai'i; today, the two regiments existed as a single unit called "The Carleton and York Scottish Light Infantry [RCCAC]") – were, as part of the 8th Canadian Air Cavalry Brigade, present at the Battle of Midway, sweeping in from Kaua'i with **one hundred and ninety-two** Sopwith So-48 Camel IIs in twelve sabre squadrons to intercept the first attacking wave of 108 aircraft from the _Kido Butai_ and nearly slaughtering them to the last plane. Indeed, the then-Canadian Air Cavalry Corps had extracted a brutal revenge for the lost of their friends at Hong Kong; the Camel II, as it was a somewhat smaller airplane in size compared to the various models of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero-sen, was the first Allied fighter to be able to dogfight the nimble Japanese plane on a roughly even footing. Even more so, despite the Camel being about as fast as a Zero-sen (maximum level speed about 530 kilometres per hour), the former was built with armour plate and could take much punishment from the latter's 20 millimetre Type 99 wing-mounted variants of the Oerlikon FF cannon . . . while the latter fighter, possessing no armour at all on average, could be shredded to pieces by the Camel's "Pack-Eight" wing-mounted gun tubs firing a total of SIXTEEN .50 calibre Browning M-2 "Ma Deuce" heavy machine guns.

"Besides, this was an act any samurai would view with great respect," the Canadian army air cavalry officer – and former Air Force special operations pilot who had commanded 427 "Lion" Special Operations Aviation Squadron before it was stood down and reborn as the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment (Air) at the start of the year – added. "A near-suicidal move to rescue a wounded man from dying thanks to a heart attack . . . and helping said man get back to his home ship alive and well. As he is a SAR tech, Sergeant Lizowski went in unarmed. Didn't the Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors forbid any sort of harsh actions against unarmed people?"

"Well, the actual text states that one must be respectful and benevolent to _civilians_. Sergeant Lizowski is a soldier in a fighting regiment in the Canadian Army even if he is a reservist. Yes, there were no plans to directly attack Canada conceived by the Imperial Army or Navy at the time of the Pearl Harbour operation, but it was expected that Canadians would fight the Imperial Army as part of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Which they did at Hong Kong." Hiromi then sighed. "And if _Yonaga_ was monitoring Imperial Navy signals at the time of the Midway operation, they will know of your sister regiments' involvement in blunting the original attack on the island, thus clearing the way for Admiral Fletcher and Admiral Spruance to strike back hard at Admiral Nagumo's carrier force. Vengeance for a perceived wrong is a hallmark of samurai tradition. You know of the story of the Forty-seven Rōnin, do you not?"

"The killing of a bastard named Kira Yoshinaka by the former retainers of a man the son-of-a-bitch tricked into effectively killing himself at Edo Castle in 1701," the Canadian officer replied. "I've read the history behind it. But if they've been up there for SEVENTY YEARS monitoring radio signals on shortwave and AM frequencies, there has to be some doubt building in people's minds, even all the way up to Admiral Fujita himself. We know of the Yonaga no Tenshi, Madame Director. Whoever this pilot was – we didn't get the name before Sergeant Lizowski went off the air – he might have a relative as part of that club. Surely you can whoever that girl is to send a psi-message to the pilot in question reminding him that he now owes the sergeant his very life."

A hum. "A good point, Colonel," Hiromi then stated. "No doubt, I'll be directly summoned to the Imperial Palace to brief His Imperial Majesty about this incident. I'll have to discuss what to do with _Yonaga_ with him when it happens." A sigh. "In the meantime, just in case Pilot Sergeant Wong gets worried, I'll order the _Yukon_ to deploy over the North Pacific to stand ready in case Sergeant Lizowski gets into any sort of trouble. He does have a materialiser locator beacon on him, does he?"

A nod. "That he does; it's part of his I discs."

"Very well, then. I'll put a call in to _Yukon_ to have her swing over the Bering Sea to keep a closer eye on _Yonaga_." Her Majesty's Canadian Starship _Yukon_, one of two Type Three frigates commissioned into the soon-to-be renamed Royal Canadian Navy, was currently being based out of the naval reserve unit in Vancouver, H.M.C.S. _Discovery_, pending the construction of the new naval reserve division and space fleet maintenance facility in the capital city of the Yukon, to be commissioned as H.M.C.S. _Klondike_. She – along with her sistership _Saint-Laurent_, based out of Québec City – would be formally commissioned into the Navy by Their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, on their royal tour of Canada starting in six days. "If they sense anything wrong with Sergeant Lizowski, they will beam him clear of the ship."

A nod. "Understood, ma'am."

* * *

Five hundred kilometres over Whitehouse, the Yukon (local time: noon) . . .

"Captain?"

Commander Trisha Holloway looked up from her dataPADD. "What is it?"

"Message from the Director, ma'am," the young master seaman – a reserve naval communicator drafted from H.M.C.S. _Nonsuch_ in Edmonton while the fifty Avalonian "plank owners" underwent their trades training at various schools in Halifax and Esquimalt – said as he handed the former executive officer of the surface destroyer _Iroquois_ a dataPADD of his own. "We're ordered to keep a close eye on the _Yonaga_, ma'am. A SAR tech from the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry rescued one of the pilots on their first CAP patrol from a heart attack and rode down to the carrier with him to make sure he got into the hands of the medical staff aboard the ship. Director's concerned since that these folks come from the pre-vacuum tube days in Japan, they might mistreat the fellow even after he saved one of their shipmates from a premature trip to Yasukuni."

The commanding officer of H.M.C.S. _Yukon_ – even if the ship wasn't formally commissioned into the Navy just yet; that would come in a week's time when she would assume atmospheric orbit over her namesake territory's capital city to be welcomed into the Canadian Navy by Prince William and his lovely young wife – sighed. "That bunch of Japanese holdouts on a carrier that just broke out of an island off Siberia?"

"Aye, ma'am." Master Seaman Lance Stanton then moved to tap controls on the main operations room plotting board to produce an image of the western Bering Sea. "_Yonaga_ is here right now," he stated as he indicated an icon on the International Date Line somewhere to the southeast of the Oljutorskij Peninsula. Said icon, Holloway was quick to note, was marked with **YONAGA** both in Roman script and in hiragana. "Their current ETA at the line between Attu and Médnyj Islands will be about 2100 hours Magadan Time tonight; about two o'clock tomorrow morning our time." _Yukon_ was currently operating on Pacific Daylight Time. "Current speed of advance is still twenty-seven knots; according to scans taken by the 3rd Space Fighter Wing and the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment, her machinery is in pristine condition and there's next to no fouling below the waterline to slow her down. If she is not stopped from making her attack run on O'ahu, she should arrive at the launch point in approximately ninety hours. Our time: Tuesday 28 July 2011 at about 0600. Hawai'i time: 0300 hours."

"Hit right at dawn, eh?" the commander mused.

A nod. "Aye, ma'am."

Holloway then sighed. "Alright. Go get Commander Glenn up here right away so we can get this big tub moving so we can get into position," she ordered.

A nod. "Aye-aye, ma'am."

As Stanton headed out of the operations room to find the executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Rick Glenn, Holloway took a deep breath. _Now I know what Captain Gamblin went through when he was ordered to take command of _Haida_ for the trip to Yaminokuni_, the commander of Canada's third starship – _Saint-Laurent_ had been named before _Yukon_, though both ships had been declared operationally ready on Valentine's Day back in February – mused to herself. _This vessel is supposed to have a crew of _three hundred_ excluding the Air Department and the detached infantry company to be supplied to me from 1 CMBG. I've only got a crew of _seventy_ right now, excluding all the plank owners that were created for this ship; they're all at the Fleet Schools!_

She shook her head. _What if something goes wrong . . .?_

* * *

The Bering Sea, 200 kilometres southeast of the Oljutorskij Peninsula (Russia) and 400 kilometres north-by-east of Attu Island (Alaska), that moment (local time: last hour of the morning watch) . . .

A knock. "Admiral?"

"Come in, Eiichi-san."

The door opened to reveal a smiling Horiguchi Eiichi. He stopped after closing the door behind him, and then deeply bowed to the elderly admiral at the end of the meeting desk. "Forgive me for disturbing you, Admiral," the senior hospital orderly said as he straightened himself. "The operation on Ensign Doihara is a success."

"He is healing?" Fujita wondered. Despite the use of the basic honorifics and the normal "hai" reply to a question, all official conversations aboard were in English, which all of the ship's crew could speak fluently. With the admiral today was one of his junior aides, Lieutenant Hironaka Kenji, who began making notes on pieces of paper to record this meeting for the ship's official log. _Yonaga_ had been able to obtain paper in trade from the Čukči natives of the area around Arakamčečen Island over the years, thus ensuring that all records concerning the carrier's incredible odyssey would be preserved for return to Tōkyō for the attention of the proper authorities.

"Hai, but he has to be grounded for a week at the least, Admiral," Horiguchi stated. "As Doctor Arishima can confirm, Ensign Doihara does suffer from a possible genetic defect that makes him more vulnerable to heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases than most of the ship's company. We'll need to watch his diet for the next while so he doesn't have another such episode when he's flying. Or else . . . "

"He may have to be grounded permanently."

A bow of the head. "Hai."

Fujita sighed. "Did Shōji-san ever demonstrate any sort of weakness that might have hinted this was coming, Eiichi-san?" he then asked.

A shake of the head. "No, sir. If there were times when his heart might have fluttered or not pumped as much as it should have, he didn't notice this. And if he did feel out of breath or weak, he just pressed on." A smirk. "Pilots are like that, of course. The ensign wouldn't dream of abandoning his mates during a mission."

The admiral smiled. "Good. If it does come to a permanent grounding, we'll have to get him assigned to a training billet so he can prepare replacement pilots if we require them." A sigh. "What of Sergeant Lizowski? Where is he now?"

"Per your orders, Jude-san was placed in senior petty officer's quarters, the cabin right next to the one holding Maria-san and Ekaterina-san. He's being guarded, of course. The captain and Sub-Lieutenant Moroboshi took his headset communicator. He didn't resist that." Horiguchi smirked. "He does still possess the tablet computer unit that we've heard so much of in the last year or so: the dataPADD, it's called. He did disable the hyper-Internet communications capability of it in front of Captain Ogawa and Lieutenant Moroboshi as well as myself and Doctor Arishima. We're more than satisfied that he cannot communicate to his pilot friend – a Pilot Sergeant Nicole Wong, I was told by him – much less his superiors back in Alaska. We let him keep the machine, not to mention his tricorder device in case he needed it again."

Fujita nodded. It was risky bringing aboard someone with such a massive technological advantage – and the knowledge to use it – aboard the _Yonaga_ at this time, but given what Jude Lizowski just did for Doihara Shōji . . .! He then sighed. "Is the sergeant up to be interrogated at this time? Perhaps he can provide us some of the vital answers we require before we proceed ahead on our mission."

"I advised him to get some sleep, Admiral. He's been up since well before midnight, Alaska time. Atop what he did for Ensign Doihara, there's also the fact that he had been on standby to fly out on that rocket-powered space albatross he came in on. According to what Jude-san told Doctor Arishima when we were working on the ensign, the NORAD authorities in both Alaska and their headquarters in Colorado are aware of our existence. We're being monitored by either American Ghostriders or Canadian Camel IIIs flying out of the Elmendorf-Richardson base near Anchorage. Not to mention whatever Russian space fighter aircraft might be flying now out of the Elizovo airfield near Petropávlovsk-Kamčátskij." Horiguchi sighed. As a hospital orderly, he was dedicated to saving lives. As a sailor in the Imperial Japanese Navy, he was bound to obey the orders of his superior officers as mandated in the _Gunjin Chokuyu_ that had been issued by the Meiji Emperor in 1882. Before today, he had never confronted the questions many of his shipmates – especially those who thought like Moroboshi Kyōsuke did – often asked about their delayed participation in Operation Z. While the concept of the Shōwa Emperor actually _**surrendering**_ to the Allies in 1945 was something very few on _Yonaga_ believed in, the radio signals the ship had picked up since that time could not all have been lies. "I think he'll be up in a few hours. Around the first dog watch?"

A nod. "Fair enough, Eiichi-san. Keep me appraised on Shōji-san's condition."

"Hai. Excuse me, please."

With that, the senior hospital orderly withdrew from the meeting room. Fujita then took a deep breath before standing up and walking to the porthole to gaze on the overcast sky partially shielding their ship from being spotted visually by either aircraft or satellites . . . or starships for that matter. As he finished making the notes for the meeting with Horiguchi, Hironaka Kenji then took a deep breath. "Have you had a chance to speak to Hinano-chan in your dreams about this, Admiral?"

Fujita smiled. None of his scribes had relatives among the Yonaga no Tenshi, though Masatada Hinano was trying to have various family records across the nation searched just in case people might have slipped through and survived the Allied bombing raids that had stormed across Japan in 1944 and 1945. He himself knew that his own immediate family was dead; all victims of the atomic bomb strike on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Fortunately, his eldest son Kazuo had managed to meet and fall in love with a lovely woman from a village north of Hiroshima a year after _Yonaga_ was trapped in Sano-wan, Makimura Seiko. They had married a year before the _Enola Gay_ had gone on its mission . . . with Fujita Hiroshi's first grandson, Tennosuke, being born three months prior to that dark day. It had been sheer luck that Seiko had been called to visit her dying father Toriji on that Monday morning, she having taken Tennosuke with her to the village of Kuchiwa, over fifty kilometres to the northeast of Hiroshima itself . . . and well clear of the potential lethal fallout of the Little Boy device.

In the wake of the war, the widowed Fujita Seiko – having managed to escape being seen as one of the _hibakusha_ who lived through that horrid morning in Hiroshima, much less the ugly morning three days later in Nagasaki – managed to survive and thrive, raising her only son and running her family farm with the same sort of near-religious zeal samurai once demonstrated in fighting for their daimyō or shōgun. She saw him put through high school and win a coveted place at Tōkyō University, graduating with honours in 1966 and actually travelling to Johns Hopkins University in America to get his doctorate degree. Driven by the desire to support the new way of peace and prosperity most Japanese people believed in, Doctor Fujita Tennosuke became a first-class researcher that helped discover various cures to radiation sickness, much less other forms of mineral poisoning like the ghastly "Minamata disease" that broke out in the fishing town of the same name on western Kyūshū in the 1950s and 1960s.

He married late in life, finding himself a wonderful girl from Shikoku named Sasagawa Natsuko in the 1970s, who gave him a beautiful daughter named Kyōmi in 1975. A woman of the modern era – which Fujita Hiroshi still felt wary of given his samurai-like upbringing and his adherence to the tenets of the Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors, which instructed that the warriors of the Son of Heaven were to be frugal in their habits – Fujita Kyōmi would eventually marry a Hiroshima native named Masatada Gennosuke shortly after the ascension of the current Heavenly Sovereign to the Chrysanthemum Throne. He was the son of a _hibakusha_ who had been a neighbour of the Fujita family in Hiroshima's Minami Ward on the shores of the Kyobashi River east of downtown. Their daughter Hinano was born in 1990 and was now pursuing a degree in law at Hiroshima Daigaku . . . even if she was also the leader of a gang of _b__ō__s__ō__zoku_!

Reflecting on that often made the old admiral laugh.

"No, nothing yet, Kenji-san," Fujita then replied, his smile widening ever so slightly. Hironaka was like a mother hen at times when it came to the admiral . . . or more properly, like Colonel Walter H. Taylor, the junior aide-de-camp to one General Robert E. Lee during the hectic years the legendary Virginian had commanded the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War in the 1860s. Which made Hironaka blush when he told the younger man that; much that they were prepared to fight the Americans as their friends in the _Kido Butai_ had done years before, there was still much to admire about the people of the vast country on the eastern side of the Pacific.

"Should we go home . . .?"

Fujita blinked, and then smirked on seeing the younger man sputter out an apology for speaking such words in the open like that. "Enough, Kenji-san!" he said as he waved his aide down. "There's nothing wrong with questioning the unknown. And even if we have orders, we are facing unknowns here. In more ways than if we had broken out in 1983. Remember the earthquake that struck near the end of November that year?"

Hironaka blinked, and then he nodded. "Hai, Admiral. It looked as if the damned glacier would finally give way and let us sail for Pearl . . . but then . . . "

A helpless shrug twitched the lieutenant's shoulder. "Yes," Fujita breathed out as he remembered that late November morning. A powerful shock hit Arakamčečen Island, nearly ripping that damned huge glacial formation that had trapped _Yonaga_ for forty-two years in half. And then . . . before the tearing eyes of hundreds of men who were prepared to cast off and head south, other overhanging glaciers on both sides of the entrance to Sano-wan came crashing down to seal the crack, putting nearly fifty percent more mass of ice between the great carrier and open ocean. That had been the lowest point in their seven-decade exile at Sano-wan. In the wake of that, many of the crew seriously contemplated ending their lives in seppuku. Recalling that, Fujita smiled as he recalled the passionate words Moroboshi Kyōsuke said when Matsuhara Yoshi had begun composing his death poem in preparation to face the business end of a tantō blade:

"Yoshi-san, my friend, we were stopped from leaving _**for a reason**_! We don't know what that reason in, but the Kami are testing us by keeping us in this land! If we deny the test has been set before us, then the Kami will turn away from us _**forever**_! Do you want to face your family in the next life with THAT weighing on your karma?"

The night after that horrid incident, most of the ship's crew got good and drunk on the limited sake supplies aboard, but then woke the next morning – after nursing rather bad hangovers, which had given Horiguchi Eiichi the excuse to give them all a tongue-lashing for being so stupid in the first place! – squared their shoulders, and then went out to drill new holes in the glacial block (the old ones that had been drilled through the ice back in 1941 had collapsed on themselves) . . . and went back to work.

_Thank the Kami for Ky__ō__suke-san at least_, Fujita mused, and then he sighed.

"Let's go."

He turned to leave. "Where?" Hironaka demanded as he rose to follow.

"To see Sergeant Lizowski and his computer."

The lieutenant blinked in surprise . . .

* * *

East of _Yonaga_'s position, that moment . . .

"There you are . . . "

Matsuhara Yoshi smiled as he gazed on the small tramp steamer sailing in the general direction of the Pribilof Islands well over three hundred kilometres east of the carrier's position and opening the range at about a speed of thirty kilometres per hour. With him on the afternoon air patrol around the carrier were his wingmen from his time in China before being assigned to _Yonaga_, Lieutenant Takamura Tetsu – the commanding officer of the 3rd Squadron of the 298th Carrier Fighter Group – to his port and Naval Air Pilot 1st Class Kojima Hitoshi to his starboard. Before they had boarded their planes an hour ago, Matsuhara had marched both his wingmen down to Sick Bay so the Canadian army sergeant who had saved Doihara Shōji could scan them with his remarkable tricorder device. That, Jude Lizowski – who looked a little fatigued after helping the medical staff under Surgeon Lieutenant Commander Arishima Kagetoki operate on the ensign's heart – had been happy to do . . . though his words acknowledging that effect had made the California-born dōhō pilot nearly collapse in laughter:

"It's an awesome day to sky-surf, cool dudes! Let's make sure you don't surf all the way to Fiddler's Green on your first day back flying in seventy years, eh?"

Matsuhara would later learn from Shimizu Masao – after the air group commander had come back aboard with his other wingman, Naval Air Pilot 1st Class Kitao Kenji – that "Fiddler's Green" was the Canadian air cavalry's version of the afterlife. Such had been borrowed ironically from their American armoured counterparts as the final dwelling place of the honoured dead such as Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, who fell at the head of his 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876 . . . though serious students of history would fault the glory-hunting native of Ohio for literally walking his troopers right into a deadly ambush, fighting with a regiment of 700 men against a massed band of nearly triple that number in native American braves.

Still, the current mission was worlds different than what the native of Los Angeles could have imagined not more than twenty-four hours before.

While he was still authorised to shoot at anything which came to threaten _Yonaga_ in any way, shape or form, he wasn't authorised to attack any defenceless targets. "I'm not sure what the actual political situation is right now, Yoshi-san," Fujita Hiroshi had told him before he and his wingmen had manned their Zero-sens. "Yes, we have our orders to attack Pearl Harbour. Yes, we cannot disobey those orders. But – if Kyōsuke-san is right and peace DOES exist between Japan and America – I won't do anything that could be seen as improperly provocative. Remember what we overheard back in 1941 when the rest of the _Kido Butai_ climbed Mount Niitaka. The attack happened BEFORE the official break of diplomatic relations was made. That was NOT what Admiral Yamamoto wanted. We must show our resolve . . . but we must ALSO show that we're not dishonourable in any way, shape or form. You can do that, can't you, Yoshi-san?"

The pilot – who looked on the admiral, as did most of the crew, like a kindly grandfather – was more than happy to agree to the change of orders.

He also had his doubts.

And there were many of them now.

According to Jude Lizowski, _Yonaga_ had been shadowed by American, Canadian and Russian space fighters since around midnight ship's time. During that time, NONE of the F-24 Ghostriders, MiG-37 Firefoxes or CSF-148 Camel IIIs sent out from either Elmendorf in Alaska or Elizovo in Siberia had come within striking range of the carrier. And if they were indeed true _**space fighters**_ – who were said to be armed with pulse light-beam weapons called "lasers" as well as anti-ship rockets – then they could possibly hack through _Yonaga_'s thick battleship-like armour to hit her magazines or aviation fuel tanks to turn her into an ugly imitation of Mount Fuji erupting in the winter of 1707-08. That would have ended their mission in the blink of an eye.

So why didn't they attack?

Didn't they realise that _Yonaga_ had orders to attack Pearl Harbour?

Didn't they . . .?

. . . or DID they?

Was there actually PEACE between Japan and America?

An actual ALLIANCE between the two nations?

And if so . . .?

Matsuhara then moaned. "Yoshi no baka! Stop thinking about that!"

He glanced over to his right. There, Kojima Hitoshi was at where he was supposed to be, though the naval air pilot was giving his flight commander a concerned look. Waving his hand in reassurance, Matsuhara relaxed as he turned to do the same thing to Takamura Tetsu, who nodded in understanding. Remembering that both of them also had "dream relatives" among the Yonaga no Tenshi, Matsuhara wondered if their own relatives would soon contact them when they were asleep to learn what was happening. And perhaps relay some more news about the world they were once more a part of.

_. . . if you've been trapped in this Eternity-forsaken place for seventy years, you're coming back into a world that will be VERY alien to you_, the voice of a Russian police officer echoed in his mind once more_. And for that, I am truly sorry . . ._

Matsuhara sighed. He had stood on the forward edge of _Yonaga_'s flight deck the previous afternoon when the small fishing boat bearing both Senior Sergeant Maria Pávlovna Gógol'a and Sergeant Ekaterina Vasílijovna Lébed'a had come into the just-opened entrance of Sano-wan. Like all the others of the carrier's crew, he had been totally taken away by the exceptional beauty of the two Terran-form Avalonian-Russian police officers. Maria, the adopted daughter of a World War Two sniper who had gone on "the long walk to Berlin" – as she called it – with her wavy chestnut hair tied in a high ponytail and sea-green eyes, both sparking with innocence yet weighed with the terrible pain of the life she had endured as a slave on a planet far away from Earth. Ekaterina, the adopted daughter of an attack fighter pilot who fought both against the Germans and later against the forces of the Kantō Army in Manchuria and northern Korea, with hair as black as pitch that was cut short for utility's sake and eyes as brown as the frozen soil of Arakamčečen itself, though there hadn't been the pain that her sister had. Thinking of that, Matsuhara found himself wondering if Ekaterina had possessed a kinder master before those alien races Moroboshi Kyōsuke had learned off – the Noukiites and the Yehisrites – had swept in to effectively destroy the Niphentaxians and liberate the Avalonians to let them all come to Earth and embrace freedom.

_And many now live in Japan_, he remembered. _Kuru-chan is one of them now . . ._

That made Matsuhara smile. Ushimatsu Kurumi – "Kuru" to her friends – was twenty-six years old, one of the elder members of the Yonaga no Tenshi; she had joined the club when she was a freshman political science student at Kyōto University when Admiral Fujita's great-great-granddaughter Masatada Hinano was still in high school. The great-great-granddaughter of Matsuhara Yoshi's cousin Takeo – who was still alive and lived in retirement in the spa town of Beppu on Kyūshū – Kurumi was currently the senior administrative assistant of Representative Wakana Ako, the member of the lower house of the Diet for the Kyōto city wards of Nishikyō and Ukyō, the city of Kameoka and the counties of Funai and Kitakuwada. Dietwoman Wakana – a member of the once-ruling party of the land, the Liberal Democratic Party – had been pressing for a re-writing of the accursed Article Nine of the American-imposed 1947 Constitution to better reflect the reality of Japan's situation vis-à-vis the remainder of the world. And while it wasn't what the militarists who were still a political force in the land would have wanted, it made all the sense in the world. To make the "Self-Defence Forces" fully legitimate, but to dedicate them to protect Japan and her friends and allies from attack from other nations and terrorist forces, like the religious maniacs who had driven passenger airliners into the World Trade Centre in New York City and the Pentagon outside Washington in 2001. Not to mention join in the defence of Earth as a part of the Earth Defence Force, commanded by Moroboshi Kyōsuke's grandniece Hiromi.

_Does it really matter _now_ what happened back in 1945 . . .?_

Matsuhara sighed, and then he looked down at the tramp steamer which was now only a half-kilometre away, being closed on very fast. Concentrating his eyes – he had the best vision of all the pilots aboard the _Yonaga_ – on the fantail of the small ship, he quickly spotted her name and current home port of registry:

**SPARTA  
Teller**

Seeing that, he grinned. _A strong name for a such a sturdy-looking ship!_ he mused as the three Zero-sens passed by the freighter's port side. Noting the several crew members on the deck waving at them, Matsuhara nodded . . . and then he gaped on seeing the old man on the port bridge wing gazing at him through binoculars . . .

. . . and he was SALUTING!

Gaping for a second, Matsuhara then relaxed himself as he saluted back. Out of the corner of his eye, he noted that Kojima was doing the very same thing . . .

* * *

Down on the ocean . . .

"Welcome back, friends . . . it's a much different world now . . . "

"You know them, Captain?"

Hearing the curious voice of his junior helmsman, Ted Ross shook his head as he lowered his arms while the three silver-hulled Mitsubishi A6M2s passed by at a thousand feet over the choppy waters of the Bering Sea, heading due east. "No, Todd, I doubt I will know any of the people on _Yonaga_ now," the ancient mariner said as he took a deep breath, his blue eyes still following the three-plane Japanese formation with the skill months serving on U.S.S. _Enterprise_ as a machine gunner in the early part of World War Two had given him. "If they've been trapped in that damned cove on Arakamčečen since the autumn of 1941 – and if they were administratively part of Unit 731 and never were properly commissioned into the Imperial Navy – then all traces of their existence would have been wiped out long before we got to those shores after VJ Day." A shake of the head. "What the hell happened to those people, anyway? Meson radiation retarding their aging processes, keeping the ship and crew practically young . . .?" He whistled. "Damn."

"They're alive and well. And they've got relatives back home waiting for them, Captain," Todd Edmundson stated; the news on _Yonaga_ had just broken out on CNN even though the freighter's crew had been warned off well ahead of time by Sarah Ross when she had flown with Pilot Sergeant Judy McLeod on a midnight patrol over Alaska. And it was a good thing, too. Even though the Japanese of today were a very peace-loving people, the men who had fought against the American Army and Marine Corps in World War Two – known as the "Greater East Asia War" in Japan – were like the ancient warriors of the city-state on the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece _Sparta_ was named after. Though there HAD been survivors of that war from Japan who – after they no longer had to adhere to the racist militarist nonsense that had driven their nation into that war in the first place – had expressed profound regret over what had happened, especially in things like the Bataan Death March and the actions of personnel from the very unit Todd's captain had just spoken off. Remembering what he had read about Unit 731 – who conducted live experiments with biological and chemical warfare on civilians, just like the Nazi SS had done to Jewish inmates in Auschwitz! – Todd could only shake his head.

"Hopefully, they aren't like their army friends, Captain . . . "

A sigh. "Possibly. The Imperial Army modelled itself after the Prussians from the very start. The Navy was practically a clone of the Royal Navy in its early days; the battleships that led the line at Tsu-shima were all built in England, in fact."

"That a fact?" Todd asked.

Ted smiled. "That's a fact. Their first armoured warship, the _K__ō__tetsu_ – it actually was used by the Confederates in the last months of the Civil War as the _Stonewall _– was actually built in France; we gave her over to the Japanese after the war so they could start up their own navy." A tired sigh escaped the elderly man. "Todd, the whole thing about World War Two stemmed from this: When Commodore Perry forced the Tokugawa Shōgun to open the country up in 1854, the Japanese had to play a massive game of catch-up to make sure they didn't suffer the same fate China was suffering at the time. The British swiping off Hong Kong, the Russians then moving in from the north and the other European powers getting their own 'treaty cities' along the coast . . .!" A sigh. "They went too far . . . but what could you expect? Especially given how arrogant and racist the people who believed in the 'white man's burden' were." As Todd laughed, the former Navy captain added, "If I was Japanese, I wouldn't want it."

"You were their prisoner for a time, weren't you?"

A tired nod. "Yeah. And for the longest time, I hated them for it. Never wanted anything to do with the Japanese again after the war was over. Wanted to make damn sure they never would threaten another helpless civilian like they did to the colonists in Asia after they conquered those territories in '41 and '42." Ted then smirked. "Then Brent and Pamela take Sarah to Japan on a posting . . . "

"And she became more Japanese than American!"

Ted laughed as his first officer, Hugh Whitener, walked out to join them. By then, the three A6M2s had vanished into the mists to the north and east of _Sparta_. "Yeah, she did, Hugh. Loved their anime, loved their manga, loved their music . . . and then she really got immersed into their culture as she grew up. She earned black belts in kyūdō and aikidō. And even if she was a blonde American among black-haired Japanese, she wasn't treated like they would normally treat a gaijin. Her language skills and her willingness to show respect to her hosts were just too good for them to ignore. And she didn't force American beliefs down the throats of her friends. Many of her friends appreciated her for it. Any dumb fool that insulted her, she ignored them . . . and she had a lot of friends who were ready to defend her if the bullies couldn't take being ignored. She helped her friends learn English and she learned how to speak Japanese like a poet. Even wrote their college entrance exams. Actually scored high enough to get into Tōkyō University, in fact . . . " A proud look crossed the old sailor's face. "And then she decided to follow her old man and old lady into the Navy. Graduated fifth in her class at Annapolis. And now . . . "

"'These are the voyages of the Starship _Enterprise_ . . . '" Todd quoted.

"Yeah!" Hugh said before he laughed. "And _Haida_ and _Arizona_ actually found out that universe was REAL back during Christmas! Even met Captain Picard and Captain Kirk!"

All three sailors laughed, and then they tensed on hearing a squawk over the civilian radio mounted on the deckhead in the pilot house. "Mayday! Mayday! This is the fishing vessel _Northern Venture_ out of Unalaska! We've been torpedoed by . . .!"

A horrid shrieking noise echoed over the radio before dead silence fell. "Oh, my God!" Hugh gasped. "You don't think the _Yonaga_ just sent torpedo bombers out?"

Ted grimaced. "I don't know . . . but let's find out!" he said as he walked into the pilotage platform and headed right over for the dataPADD mounted before his personal chair. Tapping controls on it, he then called up the signalling function, and then chose his options. "Captain Ted Ross on _Sparta_ to Ensign Sarah Ross at Elmendorf-Richardson. This is an emergency call. This is Captain Ted Ross on _Sparta_ . . . "

* * *

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, that moment . . .

A moan. "Oh, Grandpa . . .!"

"He's got lousy timing, doesn't he?"

A nude, smiling – and quite satiated – Sarah Ross could only nod as she slipped out from under her lover's nude body as she reached over for her personal dataPADD. Tapping a control to keep the conversation audio-only, she called out, "This is Ensign Sarah Ross. What is it, Grandpa? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, sweetheart," her grandfather answered back. "But we just got a quick burst of an emergency call from a fishing boat, the _Northern Venture_, out of Dutch Harbour. She was just able to report being torpedoed before the call was cut. Does _Yonaga_ have any Kates airborne running a CAP near the ship at this time?"

Hearing that, Sarah and Leigh Rhyne gaped as they exchanged looks. The latter then answered, "Captain Ross, this is Ensign Rhyne. Negative on your query, sir; the only aircraft that have launched from _Yonaga_ since this morning have been Zekes. Did you get a position report for the _Northern Venture_ when they sent out their mayday?"

"Stand by, Ensign Rhyne," Ted called back before shouting out into the background on his ship, "Are we getting them back, Hugh?"

Sarah and Leigh then tensed on hearing a faint voice call out, " . . . position 57 degrees 66 minutes north . . . 169 degrees 48 minutes west . . . we're . . .!"

Another faint squawk. "That's in the Pribilof Islands!" Sarah gasped.

"I overheard that!" Ted called out from _Sparta_. "If the Coast Guard or the Saskatchewans have more rescue specialists with them, we can use them!"

"Where are you, Grandpa?" Sarah then asked as she moved to slip on her panties.

"We're west-northwest of the Pribilofs, about two hundred nautical miles," Ted called back. "Get the call out to the Saskatchewans! We'll call the Coast Guard!"

"Right!" Sarah snapped back.

* * *

Northeast of Saint Paul Island (east-southeast of _Sparta_), that moment . . .

"We struck from THIRTY KILOMETRES OUT!"

"And did a shot AROUND an island to strike at the target from BEHIND!"

Laughter filled the control room of the _Sayf_ as the men gathered around the weapons officer's console to gaze on the readout of the wrecked fishing trawler now slipping into the waters off the northern coast of the southern of the pair of islands that once were called the "Northern Fur Seal Islands," Saint George. The rebuilt Paltus-class submarine was now almost bottomed out in the shallow waters well away from Saint Paul Island. Having diverted to this part of the Bering Sea at the order of her captain when news of a certain Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier began filtering through the dataPADD-supported hyper-Internet network – which the _Sayf_ could tap into – she had come to the rich fishing grounds off the coast of Alaska to trial her weapons before she would head off around Eurasia to get to the Mediterranean Sea.

When the test was initiated, the crew hadn't even bothered to raise either her radar mast or periscope before Mankib as-Saif had ordered the launch of a modified Type 53-65 533-millimetre torpedo from one of the bow tubes of the _Sayf_. Said torpedo was guided by meson communications link on a merry round-about course to circle Saint Paul Island – an island that was TWENTY KILOMETRES from end to end! – counter-clockwise and then strike at the fishing boat _Northern Venture_, which they had spotted through underwater-seeing sensors as it was threading its way through the channel between Saint Paul and Saint George on course for the Alaskan mainland. The shot had slammed home before the fishermen on the _Venture_ could even sense their deaths were coming.

"Allāh be blessed, the Space Angels have helped us so much!" Hamal al-Farqad declared. "With this ship, we can destroy the infidels' ships from a HUNDRED MILES AWAY . . . and they will never sense it coming until it's too late to stop it!"

More laughter echoed through the control room, and then people gazed on their captain. "Even better, with those old Japanese pagans on the loose now, the Great Satan will blame them for the sinking of this ship . . . and any others that we catch while we're in the Bering Sea," Mankib as-Saif declared. "We know how fanatical the pagans were before and during the Second World War. We know of those foolish pagans who refused to follow their infidel emperor's order to surrender and continued to fight for years – even DECADES! – after the war ended! If we stay close to this _Yonaga_ and choose our targets wisely, we can use her as the perfect scapegoat to test all our systems before we head off to rendezvous with our friends and deal with the infidels and traitors moving to depose the Brother Leader and destroy the Jamāhīriyyah!"

"We should be careful, Mankib," Wasat al-Qaid advised. "We cannot go too crazy and kill off fishing boats. If we waste our torpedoes here in the Pacific . . . "

A nod. "Wise advice, Wasat . . . though I suspect our friends will have weapon reloads at the ready when we meet up with them. Alright, set our course due west." As the others gazed on their captain, Mankib smirked. "We'll move into position aft of _Yonaga_ and stay there for a bit. If we can, we'll watch her conduct flight operations and plan our own attacks based on the movement of their aircraft." A sigh. "Like it or not, there are intelligent people serving the Great Satan. Our brothers across the Ummah have learned much to their cost that – as decadent as the Americans are – they are quite terrible and brutally proficient in the use of force. And as they did to our brother 'Usāmah bin Lādin in May, once they have a target in sight, they will destroy it by whatever means possible. It won't take them long to realise there is a submarine about, especially if the pagans on _Yonaga_ do not sortie their torpedo bombers at all. As Wasat just said, we must be careful. If opportunity comes, we'll take it."

"If it doesn't, we await our chance in the Mediterranean," Hamal added.

"Yes! Now, move us out, Wasat."

"Of course!"

With that, the tunnel drive – the Russians at Poljárnyj have even nicknamed the system the _Gusenica_ in tribute to the fictional drive system fitted into the _Krasnyj Oktjabr'_ as depicted in the novel written by the American author Tom Clancy back in 1984 – of the _Sayf_ was activated. As water was magnetically pulled in through two intakes at the bow of the submarine, they were forced through condenser tanks and compressed through a series of hard metal pipes to create enormous driving power to expel aft through exhausts underneath where the ship's original propeller assembly was. That – along with a special coating on the hull that nearly negated any friction drag on the submarine – guaranteed the _Sayf_ could outpace any known propeller-driven machine, even the ultra-fast Lira-class nuclear attack submarines built by the Soviets in the late 1970s. Even better, she could outrun any _torpedo_ launched after her!

And with how _silent_ the caterpillar system was . . .!

As the _Sayf_ lifted off from the bottom of the Bering Sea and headed off towards the International Date Line, Mankib could only grin. _Merciful Allāh, You are truly too kind to Your Faithful_, the native of Ṭarābulus thought as he gazed on the readouts from the ship's other systems. _You test the members of the Jamāhīriyyah to show us that such is the true way to go for all of the Faithful . . . and you hand us pagans who should have been sent to their rightful hell years ago to remove them from Your Creation and allow more to become part of the Faithful. So many of Your Angels of Avalon__ came to us after being so hideously abused by the devil-people's foolish allies, gladly accepting Your Divine Law to make new lives for themselves and allow the Faithful to expand into Your Heavens. So many others of the Angels who did not choose Your Divine Law to follow still respect those who have and seek to keep all on Earth safe from the devil-people and their allies, not to mention the other alien infidels that are no doubt out there. We will rise to Your Challenge and prove ourselves worthy of You! That, we all swear . . .!_

"Captain!"

That was the communications officer, Dhi'ban al-'Adhara. A somewhat effeminate man – ironically from _**New York City**_ of all places! – he was a former member of the United States Navy who had come back to his ancestral faith and was welcomed into the Jamāhīriyyah two years before by the Brother Leader himself. A dark-skinned man with sub-Saharan ancestry, he was dressed – as were all the people aboard the _Sayf_ – in plain jumpsuits without any sort of national or military markings on them. "What is it, Dhi'ban?" Mankib then asked as he walked over to the other man's station.

"I think the fishing boat might have put out an SOS before she sank," Dhi'ban reported as he gazed on the captain with dark blue eyes that – as Mankib often found himself believing – seemed more befitting for a woman in lieu of a man. "There is the chance other ships are moving in to help rescue her, both from the Pribilof Islands and elsewhere. If we hinder rescue operations – and do it in such a way that makes the people in the Navy believe the _Yonaga_ is behind that – the chances are there . . . "

"They'll attack the pagans' ship right away," Mankib finished for the other man, and then he nodded. "Alright, I'll keep that in mind. Listen in to everything."

A nod. "Yes, sir!" Dhi'ban said with a curt nod.

As the captain headed back to his station, the disguised _Asāsiyyin_ who had been born a woman named Yasamin bint-Hasan 'Amaḍārr min-Alamūt Alers in the Spanish part of East Harlem years ago – it had astounded her what using a meson crystal and a direct application of her own life force could do to deceive "his" friends aboard the _Sayf_ as to what "he" really was – turned back to her station as she called up a hidden program she had inserted into the communications network months before to activate, thus allowing a silent beacon to begin transmitting from the submarine . . .

_**To be continued . . .**_

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES:**

1) Translations: **CADPAT** – Canadian Disruptive Pattern, the current camouflage pattern for combat uniforms in the Canadian Forces; **1 CMBG** – 1st Canadian Mechanised Brigade Group, the "Army of the West" which is the formation which controls all Canadian Army Regular Force combat units (armoured, infantry, air cavalry, artillery and combat engineers) west of the Lakehead in Ontario, headquartered in Edmonton; **Hibakusha** – literally "explosion-affected people," this is the name given to all people who were present within a few kilometres of the hypocentres of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings at the time the bombs fell, were within 2 kilometres of those hypocentres within two weeks after the bombings, exposed to radioactive fallout from the bombings or were unborn and carried by a pregnant woman in any of the previously-mentioned categories; **Minamata Disease** – the name given to a neurological syndrome resulting from a type of mercury poisoning inflicted on people while lived near the Chisso Corporation chemical works in Minamata thanks to the release of methylmercury in the local water supply during the period 1932-68; **Ummah** – Community/Nation/Commonwealth (in the context of Islam, the word is used as part of the phrase _Ummat al-Mu'minin_ ["Commonwealth of the Believers"]); **Gusenica** – Caterpillar; **Ṭarābulus** – Tripoli (the capital of Libya); **'Amaḍārr min-Alamūt** – Literally "Servant of The Distressor from Alamūt," the first part of Yasamin's nickname comes from the Ninety-First name of God, _Aḍ-Ḍārr_ (The Distressor/The Harmer/The Afflictor).

2) The **Winnipeg Grenadiers** (short-form title **WIN GREN**, first founded in 1908) and the **Royal Rifles of Canada** (**R RIF C**, first founded in 1862) are two of the infantry units that (in real life) are part of the **Supplementary Order of Battle**, which effectively means that the units – while still seen as administratively on strength – are not manned at all. The Grenadiers were placed on the Supplementary Order of Battle in 1965 and the Rifles followed them the very next year. In the reality of this story, both regiments were reformed thanks to the influence of the Avalonians after they began joining the Militia (the Canadian Army Primary Reserve) in large numbers. The Winnipeg Grenadiers is one of the infantry battalions assigned to the **38th Canadian Brigade Group** (the Militia in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and northwestern Ontario) and would be assigned to the **7th Canadian Mechanised Brigade Group** if mobilised for general war. The Royal Rifles of Canada is one of the infantry battalions assigned to _35e Groupe-Brigade du Canada_ (**35th Canadian Brigade Group**, the Militia in southern and eastern Québec) and would be assigned to the _22e Brigade Mechanise du Canada_ (**22nd Canadian Mechanised Brigade**), a formation of the _3e Division du Canada_ (**3rd Canadian Division**), if mobilised for a general war.

3) **The Carleton and York Scottish Light Infantry (RCCAC)** (short-form title **C&Y SCOT LI**) is another of my fictitious Air Cavalry regiments. Based in Fredericton in New Brunswick and taking its name from the counties of Carleton and York located in the central part of the province around that city, the regiment was first formed in 1917 as the "15th Air Reconnaissance Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force," which was part of the defunct **5th Canadian Division** (which was disbanded for replacement personnel in February 1918) sent over to Europe for the Great War. The youngest of the "Original Fifteen" air cavalry regiments that were established as such in 1920 when the **Canadian Air Cavalry Corps (CACC)** was formed, the regiment (as "15th Canadian Cavalry [Air]") was mobilised for service in World War Two, but kept in Canada as part of the **8th Canadian Division**. The regiment was expanded to a two-unit format, initially called "1st/15th Canadian Cavalry (Air)" (later renamed the Carleton Light Infantry) and the "2nd/15th Canadian Cavalry (Air)" (later renamed the York Scottish Regiment) in 1941. Both regiments were deployed as part of **8th Canadian Air Cavalry Brigade** to be part of the Battle of Midway, then the brigade fought with the American armed forces at the battles of the Aleutian Islands in 1943, the invasion of Bougainville later that year, the invasion of Guam in 1944, the attack on Io-jima in early 1945 and the final air actions around Japan after Okinawa was captured in the late spring of that year. The two regiments were reunited as one after World War Two, and then allowed to take on its present name in 1958. During the "air cavalry holiday" from 1970 to 2011, the Regiment was on the Supplementary Order of Battle as an armoured reconnaissance regiment. The regiment is currently part of the **37th Canadian Brigade Group** (the Militia in New Brunsiwck and Newfoundland and Labrador) and would become part of the **17th Canadian Mechanised Brigade Group** if mobilised for general war.

4) **The Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors** (in Japanese, _Gunjin Chokuyu_) was the imperial decree of 4 January 1882, issued in the name of the Meiji Emperor (1852-1912), that served as the basic governing law and code of ethics that would influence the behaviour of all Imperial Japanese Army soldiers and Naval sailors. All members of the Imperial armed forces were required to memorise the whole Rescript – all 2700 characters of it! – by heart. This is the document where the well-known phrase "**Duty is heavier than a mountain; death is lighter than a feather**" originates from. Ironically, given the behaviour of Imperial Japanese Army and Navy personnel during World War Two, there were statements in the Rescript which expressly forbade involvement in political parties or politics in general and showing both respect and benevolence to civilians. Unfortunately for Japan's development in the early years of the Shōwa Age, a clause that would have made the military subordinate to civilian authority never made it to the final draft.

5) The story of the **Forty-Seven Rōnin** and its tale about unswerving loyalty, devotion and seeking vengeance is a very popular repeating theme in _The Seventh Carrier_ series. In 1701 (the 14th year of Genroku), Lord **Asano Naganori** (1667-1701) of Akō-han (in old Harima province; the western part of modern Hyōgo Prefecture) was tricked into drawing a sword against **Kira Yoshinaka** (1641-1703), master of ceremonies at Edo Castle, whom Asano didn't care for and who publicly insulted Asano at every opportunity he could. As Edo-jō was the Shōgun's headquarters, drawing a sword (even by someone of daimyō rank) was punishable by seppuku, which Asano did without hesitation. Forty-seven of his samurai retainers, who became _rōnin_ (master-less warriors) on Asano's death after his lands were confiscated, conspired to kill Kira in revenge, which they did on the night of 30 January 1703 after making Kira believe he would not be killed in vengeance over what he had done to their lord. The rōnin, who always knew they would be charged for murder as a result of same, surrendered themselves to authorities. Forty-six of them were made to commit seppuku on 20 March 1703; the last of them had been sent to Akō to relay the news of what happened to Asano's former vassals (he would be later pardoned by Shōgun **Tokugawa Tsunayoshi** [1646-1709], then live until he died at 78 before joining his comrades and his lord for eternity at the grounds of Sengaku Temple in Minato Ward of Tōkyō). Kira's relatives were dispossessed of their lands and Asano's brother Nagahiro was allowed to re-establish his family's name, but only regained one-tenth of the original family land holdings.

6) Canadian starship notes: **Her Majesty's Canadian Starship _Yukon_** (hull classification number **SFF-349**) is named in tribute to the Yukon River that flows through the territory of the same name into Alaska and out onto the Bering Sea. She is also the namesake of a Mackenzie-class destroyer escort (hull classification number DDE-263) that served between 1961-93 and was sunk as a diving park off San Diego in 2000. The _Yukon_'s French-language sistership, **Navire Interstellaire Canadien de Sa Majesté_ Saint-Laurent_** (hull classification number **SFF-348**) is named after the Saint Lawrence River (in French, _Fleuve Saint-Laurent_) that flows through Ontario and Québec before entering the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. She also bears the name of two previous Royal Canadian Navy ships. The first _Saint-Laurent_ was a British C-class destroyer (pendant number H-83) that was initially commissioned into the Royal Navy as H.M.S. _Cygnet_ in 1932 before being turned over to the Royal Canadian Navy in 1937 and serving until 1945, being scrapped two years later. The second _Saint-Laurent_ was the first ever warship designed and built in Canada. Given the hull classification code DDE-205, she was the first of the Saint-Laurent class destroyer escorts (nicknamed the "Cadillacs" due to their quite comfortable living quarters; they were the first ships equipped with bunks for all the crew in lieu of hammocks). She was initially commissioned in 1955, converted to a helicopter destroyer (with hull classification code change to DDH-205) in the early 1960s and decommissioned in 1974 due to serious keel damage. The _Saint-Laurent_ was finally sold for scrap to a Brownsville (Texas) scrap yard, but foundered off Cape Hatteras (North Carolina) on 12 January 1980 while being towed to her fate.

7) The **I discs** are a Canadian serviceman's identification discs which are the metal tag worn on a chain around the neck. The I discs would be snapped in half in case of the wearer's death so that one part of the disk would remain with the corpse and the other part would be returned to National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa with the deceased service member's personal documents. They are known more popularly by the American nickname "dog tags."

8) There has been no ship or naval reserve division (the Navy equivalent of Army armouries for reserve personnel) named _Klondike_ in Canadian history (after the famous gold rush of 1897-99). In the universe of this story, **Her Majesty's Canadian Ship _Klondike_** is one of the new NRDs being formed thanks to the Avalonians. The unit headquarters will be in Whitehorse, the territorial capital city, which is located in the southern Yukon on the shores of the Yukon River. The city is also on the Alaska Highway.

9) **Her Majesty's Canadian Ship _Nonsuch_** is one of the Naval Reserve Divisions of the Royal Canadian Navy, currently headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta. Formed in 1941 as a "tender" (detached sub-unit) of H.M.C.S. _Naden_ (today known as **Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt**) in Victoria, British Columbia, the ship was officially commissioned under that name in 1942. The unit was paid off (decommissioned) in 1964, but then re-commissioned (restored to service) in 1975.

10) **Her Majesty's Canadian Ship _Iroquois_** (hull classification code **DDH-280**) is one of the current series of Tribal-class ships in the Canadian Navy. Built in 1972, she was converted from an anti-submarine destroyer to an area air warfare unit in the TRUMP upgrade, done between 1989-92. The unofficial flagship of the Royal Canadian Navy and one of the oldest ships in commission in the Navy at this time, she is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

11) The earthquake in late November of 1983 that struck Arakamčečen Island mentioned by Admiral Fujita is fictional; this is actually a nod to the original book of Mr. Albano's series, _The Seventh Carrier_, which is when the _Yonaga_ actually broke out in the universe of the novel series.

12) The **Lira-class** attack submarines are normally known by the NATO reporting name "**Alfa**." None of these submarines are in service anymore; they were all decommissioned by 1990 and eventually scrapped.


	7. Audience with the Emperor

The Bering Sea, aboard _Yonaga_ . . .

A knock echoed at the door. "C'mon in, cool dudes. It's your ship."

A snickered laugh echoed from outside before the door was unlocked to reveal a diminutive and nearly bald figure – he still possessed a moustache and a stringy long goatee falling from his chin – in the green combat uniform that was worn by all aboard the _Yonaga_, his collar marked with the broad gold stand patch with the two silver chrysanthemum flower insignia of his rank in the Imperial Japanese Navy. "Good afternoon, Sergeant . . . " Fujita began before he stopped as his dark eyes fixed on the topless body of one Sergeant Jude Lizowski. And the black hexagram insignia tattooed on both his shoulders. Noting they were both the same, the admiral then hummed. "Why the Twenty-seventh Hexagram of the _Yì J__īng_, Sergeant?" he then asked as he walked inside.

Jude blinked, and then took a look at his deltoids. "Because one of the meanings of this particular hexagram is 'security.' In effect, that's my job." He then got up – from a meditative pose, Fujita was quick to notice – and then walked over to his bunk, where his backpack and other equipment was located. Not to mention his jumpsuit, the admiral noticed; the sergeant was now dressed in a pair of royal blue cloth pants with the insignia of his home regiment stitched in gold over one hip. "I assume something's happened that made you to come see me right away. Chief Horiguchi said he would insist I not be disturbed until the first dog watch." A quick glance to the clock mounted on one bulkhead, which indicated the time to be 1:14 PM; he knew the ship had been running on what the Russians called Magadan Time since they were imprisoned in Sano-wan; the seaman third-class who had escorted him to this cabin had told him that so he could re-adjust his watch. "Has something happened?"

A sigh. "Somewhat. I must confess your actions this morning concerning Ensign Doihara – not to mention the revelations you made to all of us when you came aboard – have made me realise that the situation is not what I was prepared to expect when we finally got free of Sano-wan and headed out from Arakamčečen Island." He took a deep breath as he felt a slight twinge of discomfort flood his heart as he suddenly realised that a question a part of him had wondered about had to now be asked.

"We lost the war, didn't we?"

Jude blinked, and then he sighed as he walked over to slide a chair out from under the work desk between the two bunk beds posted here. Waving Fujita over to sit down, the sergeant then moved to took his own seat on his bed. He then waved for Hironaka Kenji to come inside and sit down to the right and behind his superior on the bed on the forward bulkhead. Once that was done, the seaman guard at the doorway moved to close the door to grant them privacy. At that moment, a look of profound sympathy crossed the young sergeant's face. "Admiral Fujita, sixty-six years ago, the late and most honourable Heavenly Sovereign of Shōwa did – on realising that the military situation between his country and the nations fighting him, especially the United States of America and the United Kingdom and her Commonwealth partners, had deteriorated to the point where sustaining a state of war against them was eventually going to lead the nation to total ruin – accepted the request for surrender made to his government at Potsdam, outside Berlin, on 26 July 1945." He ignored the wide eyes on both Fujita's and Hironaka's faces as they took in how the Canadian had addressed the Shōwa Emperor. "As the late Heavenly Sovereign announced in his Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War on 15 August of that year, he was finally convinced that pressing the war in the light of the use of nuclear weapons on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – coinciding with the entry of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics into the Pacific War the day before the Nagasaki attack – and the possibility that a joint Soviet-American invasion of the Home Islands would end up ripping the nation apart . . . was not to the advantage of the Japanese people at all. In return, the Allied powers guaranteed that the Heavenly Sovereign would still be allowed to remain as the head-of-state of Japan . . . with the necessary legal modifications to the Constitution to ensure that such an august person as he would remain above the clouds and no longer be forced to intervene directly in the affairs of normal men. As his predecessors had always been seen as." Jude shrugged as his voice turned back to the normal lanky tones he used. "I'm not a history buff, so I won't try to theorise or speculate on what actually happened back then. I wasn't born back then. Hell, my parents weren't born back then. What can I say or do to judge what happened in 1945? I've no right to do that, so I won't."

"Amazing."

An eyebrow arched. "What about?"

"How your language changes," Fujita stated. "When you spoke of the late Shōwa Emperor, you spoke with reverence and respect, virtually the same as what any of us would do when we would speak of him." A sigh. "Yet once you were off that topic, you seemed ready to go back to that rather butchered version of English you normally seem to use. Do you know where the word 'dude' actually comes from? It's American English, a slang term that first appeared in the 1870s that was used to apply to ill-bred and ignorant city men! Why is it so commonly used these days? And in _Canada_ no less?"

Jude laughed. "Dude, let me tell you something: When you're a country of just over thirty-three million people living next door to the Big Hollywood Movie Machine, the way the Yanks speak the language tends to flood over the Forty-ninth Parallel all the time!" He shrugged. "I'm so used to saying it that not even the RSM of the Saskatchewans where I work now bothers me about it." A smirk. "Then again, the flyboys know that if something happens and their plane cracks up, it's people like me that have to go after them. I'm a SAR tech. You don't get people like me angry."

Fujita chuckled as Hironaka – who had got out a notebook to write down things – tried not to snicker. "A wise point. Why become a search and rescue technician?"

"Did your sigs officer ever tell you of extreme sports?"

The admiral hummed. "They're sometimes called 'action sports' or 'adventure sports.' Activities that are quite challenging physically. Also providing an inherent level of danger above and beyond what would be seen as acceptable in normal sports." He sat back in his chair. "We had such things back in our day, but we never called it that. Barnstorming with airplanes – they were not as advanced as the Dynajet your friend Pilot Sergeant Wong flies – under bridges and through the open forward and aft doorways of large barns without striking the ground or the deckhead of the doorways." A smile crossed his face. "Then again, before even my time, there were people who gladly risked their lives crossing the Niagara River gorge balancing themselves on a tightrope . . . with only a balance beam to help they stay steady. Charles Blondin, for example. Not to mention board a watertight barrel to ride over the Horseshoe Falls, like a school teacher named Annie Taylor did back in 1901; I remember reading about it when I studied at the University of Southern California in 1920."

"That would be something," the sergeant acknowledged with a nod. "Wouldn't be allowed today, though; the Niagara Parks Commission in Ontario wouldn't want to take the responsibility in case something happens and the stunt performer dies. Or you had cases like Roger Woodward; he was the kid who survived going over the Falls with just a lifejacket on him back in 1960." As Fujita gaped at him, Jude smirked. "Wouldn't wait to do it with just a lifejacket. I've learned how to be much safer."

"Than jumping onto the top of an A6M with only a _**safety wire**_ saving you from falling into the ocean?" Hironaka then demanded.

Jude sighed. "I had Nikki keep the plane steady over the ensign dude's aircraft and I had a parachute on my back in case I slipped off. The safety line was a bungee cord, which is a long bit of elastic cloth that retracts after it's reached its maximum stretching point. Atop that, we were only going about 140 klicks an hour; that's just a little faster than maximum safe speed allowed on the 401 outside Toronto. The wind wasn't too bad; I'm used to things like that. But saving the ensign dude after his heart decided to take a break was the priority. You dudes have been separated from your families for way too long. Not fair for the ensign dude to check out to Fiddler's Green just before you got the chance to finally head home." He crossed his arms. "I became a SAR tech initially because of the rush of being able to jump out of a Buffalo or Hercules at low level to parachute into the woods. Or dive off a Cormorant helicopter into the ocean. But as time went on and I helped pulled people out of danger – sunken boats in the ocean, wrecked planes in the woods, some rock climber or rappeller who got stuck on his wires on a mountain cliff – well, there was another rush I began to discover." As Fujita looked at him, the sergeant smiled. "It's our motto, Admiral: 'That others may live.' There's no war between the State of Japan and her former enemies, including the Dominion of Canada. As to how you'll be given the chance to return home with your honour intact, I can't say, but I can speculate on it. My concern this morning was this: Ensign Doihara most likely has relatives back home, as do the remainder of you. They deserve to have him – and you – come home alive, don't they?"

Fujita nodded. "They do . . . " He then sighed. "Even if the Japan I have seen in my dream-conversations with my great-great-granddaughter is so different than the Japan I left behind in 1941. So many things have changed . . . and I truly wonder if it's for the better. What you just said about the Shōwa Emperor, for example . . . " A shake of the head. "In my eyes, the Heavenly Sovereign is divine. He will always be divine. That was what I was raised from birth to acknowledge. Yet now . . . "

His voice trailed off. "I can't speak about that. And I won't try to inflict my opinions on you concerning that since I'm not properly informed on the situation . . . and because of that, I can't judge," Jude confessed. "Why are you here now?"

Another sigh, and then the admiral straightened himself. "What exactly are the orders of the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment concerning _Yonaga_?" he asked.

"To observe the movements of the _Yonaga_ as she proceeds on her current voyage," Jude stated. "To ensure none of the ship's crew or the ship herself comes to harm. And to stop those who might, for whatever reason, bring harm to _Yonaga_ or her crew."

"Who could harm us?" Hironaka demanded.

"A lot of people," the Canadian replied. "You've heard of al-Qā'idah?"

"The Muslim religious fanatics who destroyed two skyscrapers in New York City in 2001, not to mention damaged the headquarters building of the American Defence Department in Washington," Fujita stated. "The American President Bush launched a war in Afghanistan and Iraq to eliminate these bandits. Their leader, 'Usāmah bin Lādin, was killed by members of the American Naval special strike force, SEAL Team Six, in May this year."

"Why would they attack us?" Hironaka wondered.

Jude sighed. "I think it's because of this . . . "

With that, he reached over to draw out his dataPADD – it looked like a perfectly-cut slate of very thin black quartz mineral the size of a large book to Fujita – from his parachute pack and placed it on his lap. He then tapped one part of the tablet, creating a glowing image – like the picture from a movie projector – on the centre of the tablet. What appeared to be the keypad of a typewriter then appeared on the side of the tablet closest to his chest, thus allowing him to tap out a request. A thin rectangular bar of white appeared, that being filled by Roman letters in a phrase. A moment later, a shower of light then burst from the tablet to create an image right over it, one that made both Imperial Japanese Naval officers gape.

"Your country's new space carrier, dudes," Jude then proudly declared . . .

* * *

Tōkyō, the Imperial Palace, that moment (local time: before breakfast) . . .

"My gods . . . "

"It has stunned us all, Your Majesty."

Emperor Akihito took a deep breath. "I can clearly see that, Hiromi-kun," the Heavenly Sovereign of Japan then stated as he gazed on the image of the _Yonaga_ now being projected from the PADD handed to him by the reborn emperor of the Latter Hàn Dynasty of old China. "This is a Yamato-class conversion. Like _Shinano_ was."

"Hai," Hiromi stated with a nod. "But this was a more heavily-modified vessel than _Shinano_, Your Majesty. In the case of _Shinano_, all they did was cut everything down to the weather deck, remove the main turret barbettes and gunhouses, then built the necessary facilities to act as a support carrier atop the weather deck. She was never meant to act as a forward strike vessel like the older fleet carriers then in service at the time were. In _Yonaga_'s case, she was not only built with an extra hull section that extended her overall length from 265.7 metres from bowsprit to fantail to 320 metres, she was given extra armour in places that would have made sinking her quite difficult. AND she possesses a fully-functional flight deck system that could allow her to launch and recover the equivalent of two Canadian air cavalry regiments' full compliment of attack squadrons . . . and do so without next to any major fleet support for many months at a time." She reached over for the cup of tea that had been prepared for her to take a sip from the soothing liquid. "That they've survived for nearly SEVENTY YEARS speaks quite well of the level of preparation that went into this vessel's construction. And the training of her crew."

The Emperor nodded. He then gazed on Masatada Hinano. "Why has your group kept silent about your relatives all these years, Hinano-san? It would have done your relatives much good to reveal the existence of this vessel. Was it the Cold War?"

A nod. "Hai, Your Majesty," Hinano said as she bowed respectfully to her nation's head-of-state. "When the precursor group to the Yonaga no Tenshi was first formed by my great-grandmother Fujita Seiko in 1951, there were profound fears that _Yonaga_'s association with Unit 731 would see my great-great-grandfather and other members of the ship's company tried for war crimes. After all, those of Unit 731 that weren't captured by the Soviets had literally been given a chance to walk away scot-free since the Americans were desperate to get their hands on the research done by Ishii-sensei and his subordinates to prepare themselves for a possible confrontation against the 'godless hordes of red communists' soon to pour through Germany's Fulda Gap." As the Emperor laughed at the would-be lawyer's sarcastic tone, Hinano then added, "Over the years, we tried to contact various former members of Unit 731 to learn what happened to _Yonaga_. But those who were alive at the time either didn't know what happened to the ship or – as in the case of Colonel Miura Daisuke – were incapable of telling us what we needed to know. And given that the _Yonaga_ strictly adhered to total radio silence when she went to Arakamčečen Island – and the fact that our parents and other relatives were scared to reveal the ship's existence, which would have brought the Soviets out in droves to try to find her – it eventually became more acceptable to just keep quiet about it. Never forget, of course, but say nothing . . . "

"Until your generation," Hiromi stated.

A nod. "Hai. I first found out about _Yonaga_ from my mother, who took me to Ōsu Kannon in Nagoya when I was in middle school. That was where Hiijii-chan's older brother Hachirō – he died in 1905 at the Battle of Mukden near Shěnyáng; he was an Imperial Army officer – was buried. Seiko-hiibāsan – this was just before she died – told me about her husband, mother-in-law and brother-in-law . . . and then told me about the father-in-law she never knew. Part of her believed Hiijii-chan was still alive, but since there had been no attempts to try to find _Yonaga_ since she went missing, she feared he might have died . . . " Hinano then sniffed. "Hiibā-san was so sad, too. Okā-san was effectively the last of the Fujita Clan of Segikahara; Hiibā-san was afraid that with Okā-san taking the Masatada name when she married Otō-san, everything about Hiijii-chan would be forgotten. So I persuaded her to give me the names of the other relatives of the _Yonaga_ crew and where I could contact them. Eventually, about a hundred of us around my age decided it was only right to find some way to honour the ship and what service they had done for the country . . . and from there . . . "

"The Yonaga no Tenshi were born," the Emperor finished.

A bow of the head. "Hai."

"What inspired you to form a motorcycle group?" he then asked.

Hinano blushed. "Believe it or not, the Kōshi Kasshi did," she said as she waved to Hiromi, who tried not to laugh out loud on hearing that. "Most bōsōzoku only care about making their machines loud and drive them recklessly down city streets to get their thrills. That wasn't what my great-great-grandfather was prepared to die for, Your Majesty. If I became like that, he would have wanted _nothing_ to do with me!" A sigh. "The people in the Kōshi Kasshi were different. Yes, they broke the law on occasion . . . but every time they did that, they did it usually to save someone's life from car accidents, burning buildings, a pregnant woman about to give birth . . . " She smiled. "They were the type of people I came to believe that my great-great-grandfather would have fought and died for. People who obeyed the laws . . . but understood times do come when the law gets in the way of more vital things. I wanted the Angels of the _Yonaga_ to be the very same way. We all wanted it. And . . . " She shrugged. "We did it."

"Indeed you did," the Emperor said, nodding in agreement. "And when you saved those poor ladies in that house fire last year and they repaid you by giving you all the chance to become Avalonians . . . " He smiled. "Your faith was proven."

A sniff. "Hai . . . "

Hiromi reached over to gently squeeze the older woman's shoulder, flashing her am empathic burst to allow Hinano to keep control over her emotions. At that moment, a discrete knock echoed at one of the doors. A servant bowed politely to the Emperor, and then stepped out of the room. He returned a minute later. "Your Majesty, the Lady Negako and the Lady Kaga are here right now with the Lady Lieutenant Tōgō Aoi and one other person, a colonel in the Ground Self-Defence Forces I do not recognise."

"Send them in," the Emperor bade.

"Hai!"

The servant stepped out. A moment later, a familiar woman in the black gi she normally wore came into the room, followed by her lover . . . who was also dressed in a black gi and black belt, though Kaga's belt didn't have the 地 kanji in gold thread that Negako had on her belt. They were followed by a taller woman in the dress black uniform of a lieutenant in the Maritime Self-Defence Forces . . . and, much to Hiromi's surprise, a very beautiful woman in her mid-twenties, now wearing the uniform of a full colonel in the Ground Self-Defence Forces. "Who . . .?" she began before hearing Hinano gasp as the older woman's body suddenly stiffened. "Hinano-san?" she gasped.

The Emperor looked himself . . . to see the colour slowly drain from Hinano's face as she stared wide-eyed at the colonel. "Oh, dear . . . " he breathed out.

Immediately, Negako was at the university student's side, kneeling down as she gently pressed several shiatsu points on Hinano's back and the back of her head, causing the younger woman to gasp before she blinked several times. She then took a deep breath before giving the ninjutsu grandmaster an appreciative nod. "Arigatō, Negako-sama," she breathed out before turning to gaze at the colonel as she sat down.

Said colonel was trying not to blush too much; she could sense the younger girl mentally undressing her at this time. "Hinano-chan, I don't think your great-great-grandfather would approve of your interest in me," she advised as she gazed on the other woman with warm brown eyes. She had raven black hair that was streaked with bright silver strips. She also had an ornate daishō hooked to the left side of her dress belt around her waist. A single strip of ribbons was on her jacket over her left breast, all of them appearing to indicate medals awarded during the Second World War. Her nametag was on the right breast. Seeing the name there, Hinano then gaped.

"Miura-taisa . . .?"

The newcomer sighed. "I neither claim the rank nor seek the position," she stated. "As you can sense, I am an Avalonian. The _mei'na_ of Colonel Miura Daisuke, formerly of the Imperial Japanese Army, was shifted into the body you now see before you early this morning with the assistance of his former nurses at the Juntendō University Hospital under the supervision of Moroboshi Negako-sama, Shichinohe Kaga-sama and Tōgō Aoi-taii." No one bothered to correct the improper rank title used with Aoi's name. "Of course, to prepare that spirit to exist comfortably in a woman's body – and an Avalonian's body at that – certain augmentations were made to it so that that spirit . . . " She then smiled. "Me, in other words . . . " She breathed out. " . . . could live as a woman and as one of the Daughters of Avalon within Japan."

"She has yet to choose a given name for herself, Hinano," Negako then stated. "Perhaps – as she would be seen as having the right to become part of the Yonaga no Tenshi due to her previous self's affiliation with Unit 731 – you can assist her, Hinano."

Hinano blinked, and then she smiled as she reached into her jacket pocket to pull out a small pin. The others were quick to see that said pin was a miniature of the group flag of the Yonaga no Tenshi: A gold-trimmed black banner with the kanji for the ship's name surrounding the basic seaman rank insignia of the Imperial Japanese Navy (a chrysanthemum flower over an anchor). With that, she moved to affix the insignia onto the left collar of the newly-born colonel's jacket. She then hummed as she sat back to consider what Negako had stated before she sighed. "Your father's name was written with the kanji for 'great light of the Sun,' correct?" she asked.

"Hai," the colonel stated.

"Then you are Miura Masako," Hinano stated. "'Child of the light of the Sun.'"

The others in the room nodded; the name the newly-born Terran-form Avalonian-Japanese woman had been given – written a different way – was the given name of the Emperor's very own daughter-in-law, the mother of his granddaughter Crown Princess Ako. "So I will be," the newly-named Masako stated before she turned and prostrated herself before the Emperor. "Your Majesty, my father was part of a group that served Your Majesty's Revered Father in a way that – as He was never briefed on the actual mission of Unit 731 – brought eternal shame and dishonour unto Him. I offer my life to find ways to redeem my father and his comrades in Unit 731 in the eyes of Your Majesty and Your Majesty's most loyal subjects whom You protect with love and devotion, as all Your Majesty's most Revered Ancestors from the days of the Jimmu Emperor have done unto this land the Great Kami bestowed onto us. Command me and I will obey unto my death."

The Emperor tried not to sigh. He had never really experienced this sort of slavish behaviour from the soldiers that had once fought for his late father seventy years before; he was only a boy of twelve when that horrid war came to a final end and peace fell upon a shattered land. While he was bound by very ancient conventions to never speak publicly of what had driven his late father's decisions during that time period – as the Son of Heaven, he was allowed full access to the secret Imperial Archives that recorded the truth about what had happened in the reign of his late father during the time of the Greater East Asia War – he could speak of it in private as long as the others held their own silence. Moroboshi Negako and her sister were two such people. This woman – whose very _**christening**_ he had just been privileged to witness – clearly was another, as was Masatada Hinano. And her once-missing great-grandfather.

"Lady Masako of the Miura of Tōtōmi-no-Kuni . . . " he began, which made Masako nearly choke on hearing him refer to her by such a classical title, " . . . We accept your vow of service, but demand only one thing in return." As she stared in confusion at him, the Emperor then smiled as he held up a finger to emphasise his point. "That you obey and LIVE, Masako-chan! The samurai of old were prepared to die should Fate have demanded such things. But I feel that there has been too much death at the business end of weapons for far too long in this land. While I know you are prepared to give up your life if required, always find some way to _survive_ if the chance makes itself apparent. And help others survive, too! That, I hope, will assuage the spirits of those poor unfortunates who fell at the hands of your father and his co-workers all those years ago!" He then relaxed himself. "They have always said that the way of the warrior leads to death. I think it's time for people to realise the way of the warrior should lead to **_life_** as well. For the warrior . . . and those he or she protects."

Silence.

"Your Majesty, you are too kind to me . . . " Masako whispered, her voice nearly choking as the tenderness of the Emperor's words seared right into her heart.

"Rest yourself, Masako-chan," he stated.

Immediately, Hinano was at the other woman's side as she helped Masako sit up. Aoi quickly produced a handkerchief to give to the newly-born woman so she could wipe her face down and compose herself. Once that was done, the Emperor took a deep breath. "Since without a doubt, the officers and men of the _Yonaga_ will refuse to obey any orders passed onto them by the Diet of the Defence Ministry, I will have to act on their behalf to order them back home." He gazed on Hiromi. "Lady Hiromi, We will compose a Rescript to be taken at once to Our Warship _Yonaga_ and read to Our Loyal Sailors so they will understand and accept what happened sixty-six years ago in the Reign of Our Beloved Father and that no harm is to be brought onto the loyal and peaceful citizens of the United States of America or any other nation by them."

A deep bow. "My Emperor, Your Wish is my command."

The Son of Heaven then paused as he considered something before he then asked, "Do you believe that Our Presence aboard Our Warship _Yonaga_ may be required?"

Masako gasped. "Your Majesty, NO!" she cried out.

The Emperor looked over. "They may not accept a mere letter, Masako-chan."

"Respectfully, Your Majesty, I would advise you to remain within the walls of the Palace," Aoi then stated. "Just before we came here, I received a report relayed from Her Majesty's Canadian Starship _Yukon_ stating that an innocent fishing vessel, the _Northern Venture_ out of the city of Unalaska in the American state of Alaska, was torpedoed by an unknown attacker. We know that no aircraft from the _Yonaga_ was involved in this; the only planes that have flown from the ship have been Mitsubishi A6M fighters on combat air patrols. Logic therefore dictates . . . "

"A submarine, no doubt," Negako finished for the former Steel Angel.

Silence.

"From where?" the Emperor demanded.

"That will have to be investigated," the ninjutsu grandmaster stated. "Still, Masako's objection towards you actually travelling to the _Yonaga_ is prudent, Your Majesty. I would recommend that Masako herself – as she, when she lived as Daisuke, was part of the unit that was the administrative organisation in charge of _Yonaga_ – be the bearer of your letter, with Hinano and her friends in the Yonaga no Tenshi riding escort with her."

Hinano blinked. "How?"

Negako slightly smiled. "Do you know of Shigaten Kamen?"

The leader of the Tenshi nodded. "The Fukunokami-form Avalonian whose soul switched bodies with that of her template, Shigaten Benten. Benten-san was a friend of Ataru-kun's would-be wife, Redet Lum of Uru. She currently lives in Japan under the name 'Fujikaze Nobuko.' She attends the Kyoshō Academy in Kanagawa now. She's a senior and dating Hari Haruka, a sophomore at the school; he's Chōryō Bun'en."

"What did she ride when she visited Earth?"

Hinano blinked, and then her eyes widened. "Airbikes?"

Negako smirked. "You have yet to see the _Sagussan_ version of one, Hinano; they are properly addressed as 'hovercycles' and have much greater capabilities than what Kamen once used. I believe there are enough aboard the bioroid factory to allow all the members of your group to ride out to the _Yonaga_ all the way from here in Japan."

"They have that type of range?" Masako asked.

"While not capable of space flight without modifications, they can fly around the world at supersonic speeds. You can be over the _Yonaga_ in hours."

The others in the room were finding themselves nodding in agreement. "I'll have to come with you, then," Aoi then stated. "Fujita-chūjō and the others will recognise me right away." She gazed on Masako. "Just like your father recognised Kaga when she came to the hospital with Negako-san, Masako-san." As the reborn Imperial Army colonel nodded, she then gazed on the Emperor. "Your Majesty, I can arrange for the crew of the new _Yonaga_ to monitor things from orbit. With the _Yukon_ close by, we can find whoever or whatever it was that struck at the _Northern Venture_ and make sure that they don't try to sink any other ships. With the old _Yonaga_ in the Bering Sea right now, there is the chance that whoever torpedoed the _Venture_ might know of _Yonaga_ and are trying . . . "

"To provoke an incident between Japan and America," Hiromi finished.

"Hai."

"Who would do that?" the Emperor demanded.

"Several groups, Your Majesty," Negako stated. "The chief amongst them might be those who would covet the power of the new _Yonaga_ . . . but ignore what all the nations of Earth agreed to in the Treaty of Tomobiki when it comes to the use of Earth Defence Force vessels or other equipment in matters of a terrestrial nature."

"Does that explain the lady you brought to the house last night, Onē-sama?"

Negako gazed on Hiromi. "It does. The _Asāsiyyin_ – like the Yonaga no Tenshi – are all Avalonians themselves; they were allowed to become such a month after our adopted race arrived on Earth en masse last year. Because of that – and in following the dictates of Hasan-e Sabbāh, who was once the student of Hosan Hirosuke after Hasan converted the residents of Alamūt to his faith in 1088 – Jawna and her sisters have gone forth to make sure that those who would pervert the teachings of Muḥammad for their own selfish purposes would not do things that would cause retaliation against the Ummah as a whole, thus provoking a very improper 'holy war' that would simply allow more hatred and anger between those of the Ummah and those of other faiths to gestate."

"The Assassins?" Hinano asked. "Aren't they supposed to be bad people?"

A shake of the head. "No, Hinano. You are mistaking the _Asāsiyyin_ with those who SAY they are followers of Hasan's teachings. Chief of which are what are known commonly as the 'Sabbāh' to outsiders and the _Ḥ__ashshāshīn_ amongst themselves."

"What is the difference?" Hiromi wondered, clearly surprised at what her sister had just revealed about the pretty Libyan woman who had come to the Moroboshi home the previous evening. "I have not heard of either organisation to be exact."

"You would not as there has been an oath of secrecy between the _Asāsiyy__in_ and myself, Hiromi," Negako answered. "The _Asāsiyyin_ – the word means 'Faithful to the Foundation' – see themselves as special protectors of those who take up Islam as their faith. They act in the very same manner that our family has – on occasion – served to protect the Imperial House of Japan." She waved to the Emperor in emphasis. "And like us to the people of Japan, the _Asāsiyyin_ are raised from birth to NEVER discriminate between those who follow the teachings of Muḥammad. There is no difference between Sunni or Shī'ah in the eyes of people like Jawna and her sisters. Even more so, they were strictly raised to believe that others who follow in the Abrahamic traditions – Jews and Christians – are their 'brothers in faith,' to be protected as well if they lived in the lands then controlled by rulers who are Muslims. Over the years, that belief also extended to those of other faiths they encountered as well. After all, Muslims once ruled most of modern-day India, whose residents practiced quite ancient faiths that some Muslims would denounce as 'pagan.' As they would the residents of Japan given that the ways of Shintō would also seem 'pagan' to a Muslim." A sigh. "And given that Hasan was Hirosuke's student, those who adhere to schools that were created from Hirosuke's teachings – such as our own – the _Asāsiyyin_ as a whole view us as spiritual cousins." She tried not to roll her eyes. "The way she greeted me last night . . . "

"Oh? What did she call you?" Kaga teased.

A sigh. "The usual."

Laughter filled the room, though Masako looked confused as she didn't really know Moroboshi Negako and understood her outlook on life. "So what's the difference between the _Asāsiyyin_ and the _Ḥ__ashshāshīn_, Negako-sama?" Hinano then asked.

"The _Ḥ__ashshāshīn_ – the word is often translated as 'soldiers' – was actually derived from an insulting term used to those who followed Hasan's ways," Negako stated. "_Ḥ__ashshāshīn_ comes from the term _ḥ__ashishīn_, meaning 'hashish users.' While people like Jawna would never DREAM of using that form of cannabis – or other psychotropic herbs – to enhance their physical performance while performing a mission, those who later came to claim they were also 'followers' of Hasan's ways made use of such psychotropic herbs before they carried out missions they were requested to perform."

"Thus becoming 'assassins' in the modern sense of the term," Hiromi finished.

"Indeed. Currently, elements of the _Ḥ__ashshāshīn_ are assisting governments throughout the Middle East in maintaining power in the wake of the so-called 'Arab spring' that began to arise in Tunisia at the time the accident with the Staff of Gihan occurred and _Haida_ was propelled into the universe of the United Federation of Planets in the year 2371." As the people in the room nodded – the "discovery" of the _Star Trek_ universe had caused a massive worldwide furor when such was "officially" revealed a month after that event – Negako then added, "Jawna told me that elements of the _Ḥ__ashshāshīn_ are working for the government founded by Mu'ammar al-Qaḏḏāfī in Libya."

Hiromi then sighed. "Oh, delightful . . . "

"What is the problem?" the Emperor asked.

A sigh. "When the final distribution of the Type Two and Type Three ships was announced in November, Libya was assigned one Type Two destroyer and one Type Three frigate – the _Khalīj Surt_ and the _Bikku Bitti_ respectively – given the size of the population of the nation. At the time, Your Majesty, the Libyan government was more than pleased to accept what role was given to their armed forces in the Earth Defence Force in the future as their armed forces were, at the time, quite small and could not possibly support more ships, much less larger vessels. But when the people who are currently trying to overthrow the government in Tripoli launched their armed rebellion in the east of the country back in February, representatives of the so-called 'Brother Leader' began bombarding me with ever-increasing requests to have more ships given to the control of their government for use in suppressing the rebellion." A shrug. "Which, of course, I had no choice but to refuse given what was agreed to in the Tomobiki Treaty."

The others nodded. The "Treaty of Tomobiki" – so called because the actual signing of the documents was done at the Moroboshi Dōjō in Tomobiki by the heads-of-state of every nation on Earth – was the colloquial name for the Worldwide Convention on the Administration and Operation of the United Nations Earth Defence Forces. This binding agreement was first proposed in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1935 as passed in the wake of the mission to Yaminokuni the previous summer and officially was seen as having gone into force on 15 August 2010, the sixty-fifth anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Article Four of the Convention specifically declared that under NO circumstances would any ship of the Earth Defence Force or any equipment permanently assigned to the Earth Defence Force be used to quell a domestic disturbance up to and including an open rebellion against the national or sub-national government of any nation who signed the Convention . . . UNLESS it was CONFIRMED that such disturbances were caused by extra-planetary sources such as an alien government or agency of same.

In following the tenets of the Convention, Moroboshi Hiromi – as the Director of the Earth Defence Force – requested independent verification that what was now rocking Libya was somehow being provoked by alien _agents provocateurs_. Once that went out, the leaders of the National Transitional Council of Libya in Binġāzī gladly submitted themselves to full mind-melds by Avalonian-Libyans who actually lived in the western part of the country – the region which was the traditional support base for the government of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamāhīriyyah – to reveal that under no circumstances were any aliens of ANY of the known races in the local galactic cluster. With further confirmation given by the Special Committee on Alien Activities in New York City stating that none of the "secret alien residents" of Earth had anything to do with provoking the NTC's move to oust Qaḏḏāfī, Hiromi had the proof she required . . . and she sent a reply to both Tripoli and Binġāzī declaring that she could not agree to such a request and that – until such time as peace and order had been restored in the country – the Libyan Starships _Khalīj Surt_ and _Bikku Bitti_ would be held in cislunar orbit, totally unmanned save for the small crew of Avalonians created for each vessel and cut off from any contact from anywhere in Libya.

The leaders of the NTC accepted that decision, thanked Hiromi for her service to Earth, and then went back to fighting the "Brother Leader" and his minions.

The response from the leadership of the Jamāhīriyyah had been properly polite . . .

. . . but people could tell they weren't pleased by that answer.

Thinking on that, Hiromi's eyes then widened. "Onē-sama, you don't think . . .?" she began as she turned to stare wide-eyed at Negako.

"That possibility cannot be ignored," Negako stated. "Last night when I first encountered Jawna, she had taken note of a person who met up with one of your guests from the Democratic Youth League of Japan. I do not know her real name, but Jawna states she now lives under the alias 'Suzuki Kathryn.' She met up with Miura Motokata and walked him to the Tomobiki-chūō train station." She ignored the shocked gasp of breath from Masako on hearing that name. "Yes, Masako, this is your previous-self's great-great-grandson. He does not seem to care one bit at all towards Japan rearming under ANY circumstances." She took a deep breath. "I have no idea where Kathryn is at this time; I am having Jinseiko and the others try to trace her down as we speak."

"I will ask the Public Security Intelligence Agency to assist you, Negako-kun," the Emperor then stated. "But do you believe your family is under threat?"

"That is a possibility," the grandmaster calmly replied, surprising both Masako and Hinano with her total lack of reaction to such a threat from her family. "But there are ways and means to make sure that if such an attempt to force Hiromi to defy the tenets of the Convention is made, it will be too costly to pursue."

"The Lady Jawna, you mean?" Hiromi asked.

A nod. "And her adopted sisters."

"Negako-kun, you have to tell me who they are," the Emperor noted.

"When the time comes, I will present Jawna to you, Your Majesty."

"Fair enough," he replied, and then he took a deep breath. "Have my personal writing materials brought here now," he then bade the servant at the doorway leading into this private meeting room. "I will compose the letter to Admiral Fujita for you to take to him, Hinano-chan," he then stated. "You'll need to go out quickly."

"Hai!" the leader of the Yonaga no Tenshi said as she bowed her head . . .

* * *

Utsunomiya, the Ebisu Dōjō, that moment . . .

"Alright, Akane! That's enough!"

Hearing that, Miyamoto Akane stopped before she took several deep breaths, and then she moved to relax herself, stretching her arms and legs to get the kinks out of them before she proceded to cool herself down. Kneeling at the head of the dōjō by the kamidana, where the dōjō-kun and the kanban were posted, was her lover and bond-mate – not to mention her sensei in the Edo Oniwabanshū Ebisu-ryū – Ebisu Kyoko. Both girls were currently in plain black gi with black belts around their waists. As her beloved moved to cool down, the reborn Hú Chē'ér of the Latter Hàn could only smile at how much Akane had come since the previous summer when she had transferred out of Fūrinkan High School in Nerima and became a student at the Yoshū Academy here in Utsunomiya. While Kyoko was a senior and now preparing to write the Centre Test in the upcoming winter term, Akane was a sophomore and – thanks to her NOT being a tōshi – had to prepare herself for whatever challenge her schoolmates might make once she was effectively "free" of the protection of the woman known to all her peers as Koshaji of Yoshū.

"It's easier now," Akane noted.

Kyoko nodded as she stood up. "That's good. In a short while, you might be able to fight your former fiancé on a roughly even footing."

Hearing those words made the younger daughter of the disgraced Tendō Sōun blush as she leaned down to stretch herself, Kyoko moving in to help push her upper body forward. Striving to be just as good as Hayashi Ranma had been a goal of Akane's since they were effectively forced to break up the previous summer thanks to he being paralysed by the Nǚjiézú warrior-maiden Shampoo . . . which brought him to the attention of the Moroboshi family and set him on the road to renounce any bonds with his birth-father, Sōun's former training partner Saotome Genma, to affirm relations with his parental grandmother Hayashi Chiaki and his maternal great-grandfather, Professor Henry "Indiana" Jones.

It had been quite the steep climb for Akane since she began living full-time with Kyoko at her family home near the Ōya-ji temple to the west of the downtown section of the capital city of Tochigi Prefecture. Unlike her – who had lived the life of a normal city girl back in Nerima – Ranma had been training in the martial arts since he was old enough to walk . . . which had ultimately hindered the proper development of the "engagement" between him and Akane when his father had brought him to the Tendō dōjō late the previous spring to meet Sōun's three daughters and be promised to one of them. With Ranma having recovered from the wound Shampoo – now his own sister-in-law by the rules of her tribe – had given him thanks to the intervention of Avalonian technology provided by the Moroboshi Clan, he got back into hard training while he also went forth to catch up on the years of schooling he had missed thanks to the decade on the road with Genma. Helped by a wide gamut of people including Shampoo's great-grandmother Cologne, Musabetsu Kakutō-ryū Grandmaster Happōsai and Ranma's current fiancée Sebone Mimōko, he was now almost on the verge of being able to challenge Moroboshi Negako herself in a duel with hopes of success. Akane – who had learned thanks to Kyoko how much she had fallen behind her ex-fiancé in pursuing her own martial arts studies – couldn't let such an obvious challenge get away from her, so she plunged into her own studies with relish.

Of course, when your sensei is also your wife-in-all-but-name . . .!

«I love you . . . »

«My love for you is eternal, Akane-vayae . . . » Kyoko returned telepathically as she leaned down to tenderly kiss the younger woman under her left ear.

«Do you sense her?»

A smirk. «You're getting there.»

«Is she a threat?»

«No, I don't believe so. What can you tell about her?»

A hum. «Avalonian. Terran-turned. Originally from England, but descent from Iran. Incredibly trained; I would swear that she was one of the Kuromoroboshi or one of Shampoo's friends.» She gazed in amusement at Kyoko. «Or you, Kyoko-vayae . . . »

«Not bad,» Kyoko purred as she kissed her lover's neck again, and then she looked over. "C'mon in!" she called out. "There's no need to hide anymore!"

A moment later, a lovely woman with the olive-shaded skin of a native of old Persia walked up to the entrance of the dōjō. Clapping her hands to alert the kami of the training hall that she had come in peace, the crimson-haired, brown-eyed woman who was somewhat conservatively dressed – she bore a shawl over her hair, though it didn't hide her exceptionally well-sculptured face; she also wore rather plain clothes that discretely hid her figure but still allowed full freedom of movement for an expert martial artist – then gazed fondly at them. "May the Most Loving give His Blessings upon this noble hall of training and onto both your families, good sisters," she then declared with a strong East Midlands English accent as her eyes sparkled with delight and amusement. "Forgive my disturbing your time in training and further building your relationship, but I fear that those who profess to be warriors of the Ummah have very dark designs towards the family of she who was once the Xiàolíng Emperor of Hàn." Her eyes then narrowed as she gazed on the ninja-trained-tōshi. "Kyoko bint-Chē'ér."

Kyoko tensed, surprised that this newcomer had addressed her as the "Daughter of Chē'ér" in Arabic, and then her heart nearly froze as the woman's words struck home. "The _Emperor_ . . .?" she hissed out before her pale brown eyes suddenly widened in recognition. "You're one the _Asāsiyyin_, aren't you?" she asked.

The newcomer smiled. "Indeed, sister. I am Birrah bint-Hasan 'Amawadūd min-Alamūt Walgett, formerly of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, England." She then sighed. "I need to speak privately to the leaders of the Seven Battle Schools of Kantō who are the Great Lady Hiromi's closest spiritual advisors. And it must be done discretely."

Kyoko nodded. "That can be done, Lady Birrah." She stood up. "Akane, prepare some lāpǔshān xiǎozhǒng tea for our guest. I'll be sending out some text messages."

"Hai!" Akane said, nodding automatically.

As the older martial artist left the room, Akane sighed as she got to her feet, and then brushed off her gi. "This way, Birrah-san," she said as she waved the Iranian-descent Englishwoman out of the dōjō to the traditional home where Kyoko, her parents and her sister Akako lived. "Akako-san! We have a guest!" she called out as she and Birrah stepped into the genkan to remove their shoes before walking inside.

The visitor clapped her hands. "Allāh's blessings upon this home."

Hearing that, the elder Ebisu daughter – known to tōshi peers as "Kosekiji" – looked over. Akako was a first-year university student at Bunkyō Women's College in the ward of the same name in Tōkyō; she was a former graduate of Rakuyō Senior High School and a good friend of the school's former leader, Suguta Tadasu. A hidden background participant in the Yaminokuni mission and the mission to the universe of the United Federation of Planets, Akako – who physically was a near-twin of Kyoko's save for her having chestnut-shaded hair and no tattoo on her cheek; the tattoo was used to mark the primary heir of the Ebisu-ryū – was pursuing a degree in business management; she planned to work on the civilian staff of the United Nations Earth Defence Force when it was finally formally established as part of the resource management team under the overall control of Akane's elder sister Nabiki. "Welcome to our home," she said as her eyes locked on Birrah . . . and then she blinked as the visitor's quite exceptional looks seemed to sear past all her emotional guards to piece her heart. "Oh, my . . .!"

Sensing that, Birrah blinked before her cheeks quickly reddened as her own heart seemed to thump even faster inside her chest. "A pleasure, Lady Akako . . .!"

As both women started to giggle and fluster in embarrassment, Akane could only grin as she headed into the kitchen to prepare the requested tea.

Being an Avalonian was so much _fun_ at times . . .!

_**To be continued . . .**_

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES:**

1) The **Yì J****īng** (known more popularly by the Wade-Guiles transliteration, **I Ching**) is the **Book of Changes**, one of the oldest of the classical Chinese texts. A book that introduced a sixty-four hexagram system for divination, the Book of Changes is one of the most well-known and popular works to come out of old China. The hexagrams that are tattooed on Jude's shoulders would be written 頤 in Chinese characters (read as "Yí" in Mandarin and "I" in both Korean and Japanese). Other meanings of this term include "swallowing," "providing nourishment" and "jaws." The hexagram in question combines the trigrams (three-part symbol) of "thunder" at the bottom (inner trigram) and "mountain" atop it (outer trigram). Fans of _G.I. Joe - A Real American Hero_ will remember that the character of **Snake Eyes** bears the Sixty-Third Hexagram (written as 既濟 in Chinese characters, read as "Jìjì" in Mandarin, "Kije" in Korean and "Kisai" in Japanese) on his shoulders, which combine the trigrams of "fire" as the inner symbol and "water" as the outer symbol. The 63rd Hexagram represents the concepts of "already fording" (crossing a river), "after completion" or "already done."

2) The **Forty-ninth Parallel** (which is the accepted location of the International Boundary between the Lake of the Woods between Manitoba, Ontario and Minnesota to the east and the Strait of Georgia between British Columbia and Washington in the west), which infers the 49th Parallel of Latitude North of the Equator, is a common euphemism for the border between the Dominion of Canada and the United States of America.

3) Translations: **RSM** – Regimental Sergeant-Major, the senior non-commissioned member of a battalion-sized unit in the Canadian Army; **Sigs** – short for "Signals," which is the Army way of addressing someone working in communications; **Klicks** – shorthand for "kilometre;" **Daishō** – literally "Large and small," the name given to the pair of swords (katana and wakisashi) traditionally worn by a samurai; **Agents Provocateurs** – Inciting agents; **Kamidana** – literally "altar of the Kami," this is the miniature Shintō shrine used in houses and other buildings outside a proper temple; **Dōjō-kun** – literally "Rules of the Dōjō," the wall plaque that lists what behaviour is allowed and not allowed in a dōjō; **Kanban** – literally "Billboard," it is the plaque that displays the legal authorisation for a dōjō to exist; **-vayae** – Sagussan suffix honorific meaning "my darling" or "my dearest," which serves as the standard term for endearment between bond-mates; **'Amawadūd** – Servant of the Most Loving; **Lāpǔshān Xiǎozhǒng** – the proper Mandarin way of saying "Lapsang Souchong," a type of black tea from the Wǔyí Mountains of Fújiàn Province on China's eastern coast which is traditionally smoked over a fire of pinewood, thus giving it a smoky taste.

4) **Charles Blondin** (born as **Jean François Gravelet-Blondin**) (1824-97) was the most famous of the Niagara tightrope walkers that crossed the Niagara Gorge below the Falls between Niagara Falls (Ontario) and Niagara Falls (New York). He performed seventeen such crossings between 1859-61, varying his stunts between walking by himself, carrying his manager across the Gorge piggy-back and even actually moving a portable stove out midway across the river to cook breakfast! In comparison to Blondin, **Annie Edson Taylor** (1838-1921), a failed dance teacher who became the first person to go over the Horseshoe (Canadian) Falls in a sealed barrel on her sixty-third birthday (24 October 1901) and survive, faded into obscurity after her stunt and eventually died in an infirmary in Niagara Falls (New York) almost forgotten. Beyond all the stuntmen who have braved the dangers in Niagara, **Roger Woodward** (born in 1953) earned fame by actually surviving a plunge over Niagara Falls on 9 July 1960 protected only by a lifejacket. These days, he lives in obscurity, though he did return to relay his story on a Canadian television special in 1994.

5) Ontario **King's Highway 401** (known from end to end as the **MacDonald-Cartier Freeway** and partway along its length from Toronto to Trenton as the **Highway of Heroes**) is Canada's busiest superhighway. It connects Windsor (and Detroit in Michigan beyond) with London, Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge, Guelph, Metropolitan Toronto and its western and eastern suburbs, Belleville, Kingston and Cornwall to eventually link up to Québec Autoroute 20 and Montréal beyond. Standard highway speed on the 401 (pronounced "four-oh-one") is 100 kilometres per hour (about 60 miles per hour).

6) Aircraft notes: The **de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo** (Canadian military designation **CC-115**, known in the United States Army as the **CV-7A**) is a STOL-capable turboprop aircraft used for light cargo duties and seach and rescue support; it's either from this aircraft or the **Lockheed Model 82 Hercules** (military designation **CC-130** in Canada, **C-130** in the United States) tactical transport aircraft that SAR techs like Jude parachute from when they're deployed on a mission. The **Agusta-Westland AW101** (known in the Canadian Forces as the **CH-148 Cormorant**; a variant of this aircraft was built for the American President by Lockheed-Martin as the **VH-71 Kestrel**) is a search and rescue helicopter which flies out to assist SAR techs in pulling out injured civilians or soldiers from the field or from aboard a ship.

7) **SEAL Team Six** (today known as the **United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group** [**DEVGRU** for short]) is one of America's top military counter-terrorist groups. Founded in 1980 under the command of the infamous "Rogue Warrior," Commander (retired) **Richard Marcinko** (born in 1940), SEAL Six/DEVGRU have participated in almost every mission that required Naval specialised warfare personnel. Their most famous action, of course, was **Operation: Neptune Spear**, when elements of DEVGRU travelled to Abbottabad in Pakistan to kill 'Usāmah bin Lādin on 2 May 2011.

8) Lieutenant General **Ishii Shirō** (1892-1959) was the microbiologist who was the commanding general of Unit 731. Like Miura Daisuke, he was able to get free of war crimes accusations by cooperating with the Americans and being granted immunity from prosecution (the Soviets really wanted to get their hands on this man). He was said to have worked at the **United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases** (**USAMRIID**) at Fort Detrick in Frederick (Maryland) after the war, but that has not been confirmed.

9) **Ōsu Kannon** (properly called **Kitanosan Shinpuku-ji Hōshō-in**) is the Shingon Buddhist temple located in the Ōsu district of Naka Ward in Nagoya. As the _Seventh Carrier_ series tended to be very unclear when it came to actual locations – for instance, Segikahara (the scene of the famous battle in 1600 that saw the Tokugawa Clan finally unite all of Japan under their rule) was said in _Return of the Seventh Carrier_ to be a suburb of Nagoya (the capital of Aichi Prefecture) while in reality, it is in Gifu Prefecture north of Aichi – and place names, I have to guess at some things (as it was firmly established that Fujita Hiroshi is a Nagoya native). Again, as I stated before, Mr. Albano's editors had to be asleep at the wheel at times!

10) **Tōtōmi-no-Kuni** (**Tōtōmi Province**) was located in what is today the western part of Shizuoka Prefecture in the Chūbu Region on Honshū (in the area of the modern-day city of Iwata around Lake Hamana on the shore of the Pacific Ocean).

11) The true **United Nations Security Council Resolution 1935**, which was adopted on 30 July 2010, was meant to extend the mandate of the **African Union - United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur** (**UNAMID**) for 12 more months. Darfur, as is known, is the western region of Sudan that has been subjected to an oppressive war starting in 2003 waged by the government in al-Ḫarṭūm (Khartoum) against the non-Arab natives of the region. In the reality of this story, the above-mentioned resolution would have been numbered 1936.

12) **Kosekiji** (**Ebisu Akako**) is named in tribute to **Hú Chì'ér**, a general who served under **Niú Fǔ** (known in Japanese as **Gyōho**), who was one of Dǒng Zhuó's trusted lieutenants. She did not appear in _Ikkitōsen_ but given that it is believed that Hú Chì'ér and Hú Chē'ér (note the similarity of the names) are said to be blood-related in some historical sources, it made sense to give Kyoko a sister. As stated above, Akako is one year older than Kyoko and she was a senior at Rakuyō at the time of _Phoenix From the Ashes_. Since Kyoko (as Koshaji) is better known to _Ikkitōsen_ fans, I made her the true heir of the Ebisu-ryū.


	8. Thoughts of the Past

Kamogawa (southeast of Kimitsu in Chiba Prefecture on the shores of the Pacific Ocean southwest of Kujūkuri), the Hayashi-Sebone Musabetsu Kakutō-Joketsuzoku-ryū Dōjō . . .

"That's good! Try it again, you two!"

"Hai!"

Watching the two Chinese teenagers from the community of Èzāi near the home village of the Nǚjiézú proceed through the sparring kata he had invented for the use of beginners, Hayashi Ranma could only smile in delight. While he had been taught since he was old enough to understand the concept that keeping oneself locked on a single training system was quite unwise – one of a few things his disgraced father Genma had actually been quite right about – Ranma had come to see making use of such basic kata to help newcomers seeking knowledge under his tutelage get used to moving their bodies at their own command as a great teaching tool. The twin sisters who were now learning under his overall supervision had benefitted from it a lot since they took residence in this resort town not far from the famous Kujūkuri Beach where Ranma's fiancée had been born and now resided in while attending the Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba City's Mihama Ward pursuing a degree in language and culture.

Speaking of which . . .

"Their movements are a lot more fluid."

Ranma nodded as Sebone Mimōko knelt down beside him in front of the kamidana, which – in reflecting the international heritage of this particular dōjō – also had shrines to the various goddesses worshipped by the Nǚjiézú as well as various Buddhas, Taoist divinities and even a small Calvinist shrine placed there by Ranma's great-grandfather in following local tradition that "the more gods whose favour you invoke, the more they will bless your efforts." "Yeah, now that they've got over what happened between them and Shān when they were kids, Līn and Pīn are moving up a lot."

Mimōko smirked as she focused her eyes on Zhào Xìlīn and Zhào Xìpīn – "Link" and "Pink" for those who just simply couldn't be bothered to pronounce their given names properly – as they continued to spar with each other. Given the twins' considerable knowledge in flora and herbs – even Kunō Kodachi herself had been quite taken away by the twins' level of knowledge when she first met them some months before – that they were sparring within the confines of the Hayashi-Sebone Dōjō was a bonus. Unlike other training halls Ranma and Mimōko were quite familiar with, this particular structure had been built extra-large and reinforced with Avalonian technology so it could withstand as much abuse as possible, both from the surrounding elements and the practitioners who used it. Chief of which were many tōshi attending the Nan'yō Academy where Ranma still was a student as a sophomore, as were two of his sisters, not to mention the wife of one of them (by Nǚjiézú law) and one of Ranma's former fiancées, who was both lover and bond-mate to the current leader of the Tigers of Dōng Wú, senior high school student and the reborn Little Conqueror of Chángshā, Mago Tsueko.

And speaking of which . . .

A clap of hands. "Pardon us for intruding on you!"

"C'mon in, you two," Ranma called out.

"Hi, Ran-chan! Mō-chan!" the cheery voice of the reborn Little Conqueror called out as she stepped into the dōjō, followed by Kuonji Ukyō. Tsueko was quick to wave both Link and Pink back to their kata when they stopped to bow to her. "Managed to get U-chan away from her restaurant for a day so she can relax and have some fun."

"Who's running Okonomiyaki U-chan's today?" Mimōko asked.

"Gaku-chan'll be there. Natsu-chan, too."

Their hosts nodded in understanding. The gentle giant of Nan'yō, Tano Tsukuhito – who had graduated from the school in March alongside Mimōko and their peers – was now a freshman student at Tōyō University's main campus in Tōkyō's Bunkyō Ward pursuing a degree in philosophy. He often volunteered his time at Okonomiyaki U-chan's in Kimitsu to give Ukyō the chance to take a break from running her place and spend some quality time with her lover. Also working at Okonomiyaki U-chan's was a kunoichi-raised ninja from the mountains of old Iga-no-Kuni in the western part of modern-day Mie Prefecture, Mochizuki Konatsu. Konatsu – who, though born as a boy, had been raised as a girl in very much the same way as Fujinami's Ryūnosuke's lover/bond-mate Shiowatari Nagisa had been raised – had become smitten with both Ukyō and Tsueko after they had freed the poor fellow from the influence of a cruel stepmother and two quite ugly stepsisters running a teashop/hostess bar in the mountains where Ukyō and Tsueko had gone to train one weekend the previous February. Of course, Mochizuki Kotetsu and her daughters Kome and Koeda had NEVER encountered a tōshi before – especially one bonded soul-to-soul with one of the Heavenly Dragons of the Three Kingdoms of all things! – and were defeated by Tsueko without the necessity of calling on re-enforcements from Nan'yō or elsewhere. In the wake of that, Konatsu – who was, in the opinion of Ranma's mother Nodoka, a true "woman above women" despite his being born a man – took advantage of an offer made by Tsueko to undergo gender reassignment so s/he could live much more comfortably and be the true heir of his/her family school of ninjutsu.

As the couple knelt beside their hosts, Tsueko then smirked as she gazed at the main doors. "Batchi, c'mon in! Don't just stand there with your mouth open!"

Ranma and Mimōko chuckled as a chestnut-haired sophomore with eyes the shade of maple fudge walked into the dōjō, pausing to bow to the spirit of the place before she moved to sit down. "I'm sorry about that, Master," Uma Mikoko – currently a sophomore at Seito High School after her old school, Ryōshū, had been burned down by rampant tōshi from Ugan High School the previous fall – said as she gave Tsueko an apologetic look. "It's just that I never thought I would ever walk into a dōjō that was actually meant for use by practitioners of schools descent from Master Hosan's teachings!"

Tsueko sighed. "Mō! Stop doing that, Batchi!" she said. "Negako's an okay lady . . . " A smirk. "Even if she is even moodier than Kan-san!"

Laughter filled the dōjō. "Could you imagine what might happen if Bachō here actually met Raeburn-shōsa?" Mimōko asked as she gazed in amusement at the scrappy fighter from Saitama known to her brother and sister tōshi as "Bachō Mōki."

Mikoko yelped as her ponytailed hair seemed to come alive like the snakes of Medusa's head while the others laughed. "So how's her training coming along, Fu-chan?" Ranma asked.

"Oh, she's getting stronger," Tsueko answered; even if many of students from Nan'yō had often helped their leader train Mikoko, neither Ranma nor his siblings had been solicited for their assistance. "Even if Kōtchi managed to make things peaceful between Batchi and Sō-chin back in the Great Fighter's Tournament last year, she still wants to honour her brother by being the best she can be." A wink. "Not to mention impress Tai-san whenever she and Ryep'-san come by to visit from Tengsei."

Mikoko chuckled. "It's so weird . . . " she then confessed. "I never was a _Star Trek_ fan . . . and there I was, dreaming of this girl that looked like a very nice Klingon beating the crap out of bandits alongside her own wife. Who's actually the dream sister to Ryūen-sama's own bond-mate of all things!" As the others laughed and Ranma waved to Link and Pink to relax as they finished their kata, the former Ryōshū High School leader then added, "It's a pity we never got the chance to go out to visit Noukiios or Okusei when we went on that trip to rescue Ryūkō-sama and the others when _Haida_ got sent into the _Star Trek_ universe when the crew of the _Enterprise_-D actually met up with Kirk-taisa." She then gasped as a cold can of soda pop was pressed into her cheek. "HEY!" she yelped before turning around and looking up. "Chōun!"

An amused smile crossed Koeru Kumomi's face. Though she was still seen as part of the Seito group of tōshi, the silver-haired woman was now spending her last year of secondary education at Nan'yō alongside her lover, Ranma's sister Miiko. She intended to follow in Tano Tsukuhito's example and proceed to get a degree in philosophy at Tōyō University when she passed the Centre Test this coming winter. Glad to follow Miiko back to reunite with Ranma and their other sister born of the waters of Zhòuquán-xiāng, Kikuko – their other sister, Kanami, was still living with their grandmother Chiaki near Ueno Park in Tōkyō's Taitō Ward – the dragon-possessed tōshi from Saitama had found making new friends among the Tigers of Dōng Wú quite easy. _Truly, Hiromi-sama's return to all of us was a divine blessing indeed_, Kumomi often thought when she reflected on this. "You need to be more aware of your surrounding area, Bachō-san," she softly declared before she "gazed" – as always, she kept her eyes closed so that she didn't freak people out with how they were shaped thanks to her being touched by the heavenly dragon Shùnpíng – upon the twins in the middle of the room. "«How fare you both, beloved kinsmen?»" she asked in Mandarin. "«Your training goes well?»"

The twins grinned. "«We are performing as the Young Teacher Father and his Revered Wife desire of us, Revered Ancestor,»" Link answered for them both; many of the natives of Èzāi – which was the closest the armies of Shǔ Hàn ever got to the territories of the Nǚjiézú during the Three Kingdoms era – were blood-descent of Zhào Yún himself and had been utterly overwhelmed when they got the chance to meet his latest reincarnation upon coming to Japan to settle old scores with Shampoo. They then grinned on noting the blush crossing Mimōko's face; the Nan'yō alumni – like all tōshi – could speak Mandarin as fluently as she could Japanese . . . and she HATED it every time they used the title "revered" with her. "«Our flower business also is well. Many of our customers have been taken quite aback by what our knowledge does to their gardens.»"

"«Wonderful . . . »" Kumomi then tensed. "Eh?"

The others perked. "What is it?" Mikoko asked.

"A visitor, Bachō-san . . . and a very unfriendly one," Kumomi said as she flicked her thumb to unlock Zanryū from its scabbard. "Southeast corner . . . "

"Got him," Ranma said, his eyes narrow. "Full of drugs, that one . . . "

"Yeah . . . " Mimōko hissed. "And he . . . "

_KR-KRACK!_

"Looks like Mii-chan got him," Ukyō stated.

Mikoko gasped as she gazed on the okonomiyaki chef. "How . . .?"

"_**INTRUDER! HOW DARE YOU INVADE OUR HOME?**_"

People winced on hearing that thunderous shout echo from outside the dōjō hall. "My beloved can be quite destructive when she feels her home and family threatened, Bachō-san," Kumomi stated as she calmly drew her katana and moved to step outside.

The others – including Pink and Link – moved to follow . . .

* * *

For Tàahm Alī al-Khalifa, this should have been an easy task.

He had been assigned by his leader to attack and kill the pagan infidels living at this so-called "training hall" who purported to teach one of the schools that had been given the blessings of the Immortal Master Hosan . . . as well as served as a place of residence for members of the pagan tribe of warriors from the mountains of the Chinese province of Qīnghǎi living in Japan. Their friendship to the Moroboshi bitch was well-known and they gladly supported that accursed woman whenever she did anything, even things that would subvert the Ummah – especially those who gave their allegiance to the Jamāhīriyyah now in Libya – to the warped will of those heretics, infidels and pagans who actually deemed themselves more "civilised" than those of the Ummah.

Of course, he didn't sense the rather LARGE statue of the Buddhist bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha – known locally by the name "Jizō" – fly right at his head as he had moved to lunge into the dōjō building himself, his combat knife drawn.

_KK-KRACK!_

"_**INTRUDER! HOW DARE YOU INVADE OUR HOME?**_"

As the moaning Tàahm tried to pick himself off the ground – it was rather hard to do so with several thousand kilograms of well-chiselled granite having driven his head into the dirt! – footfalls heralded the coming of the first-born of the three Avalonian sisters of Hayashi Ranma. "Filthy worm!" Hayashi Miiko snarled as she moved to place herself a safe distance away from the moaning native of Bahrain. "Who are you? How DARE you come leaping onto OUR property with a drawn KNIFE . . .?"

"_**PAGAN INFIDEL BITCH! DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!**_"

Miiko gasped as the intruder – his muscles and nerves overcharged thanks to the considerable dosage of drugs now in his system – surged up, tossing the statue aside as he moved to fling the knife at this devilish woman. Before said knife could leave his hand on a course for Miiko's forehead, a bright flash of well-honed Damascus steel blinded him for a moment . . . before a tsunami of pain overwhelmed his mind thanks to the fact that his knife hand had just been severed at mid-forearm thanks to a very beautiful scimitar!

"Now, brother! My good sister of the Latter Hàn had every right to ask that question of you," a scolding voice then said . . . in quite classical Japanese, even if there was a strong Arabic accent in those words. "You should have answered her!"

Moaning as he staggered back, his good hand moving to clamp down the severed radial and ulnar arteries and thus prevent him from bleeding to death, Tàahm turned to gaze up at the woman who had just spoken . . . and then his skin paled.

"Kubra . . . why . . .?"

"Because in the eyes of The Arbitrator, YOU are the heretic, Tàahm," the lovely woman in the form-fitting clothes – with a scarf wrapped around her head of wavy dark blonde hair which indicated some Western European ancestry – declared as she moved to take a defensive stance close to Miiko. "Not I. Now, I suggest . . .!"

"_**GRENADE!**_"

The newcomer gasped as someone bolted past her in a blur, said blur becoming Sebone Mimōko as she landed in a crouch in front of a wide-eyed Tàahm. Her hand snapped out to snare his good hand . . . which Miiko and the newcomer were quick to see now had an M67 fragmentation grenade in it, the safety pin pulled and the jungle clip removed. Quickly breaking that arm – which caused Tàahm to howl in agony as his hand reflexively let go of the hand grenade – Mimōko spun around, snared the tiny bomb and flung it as high as she could pitch, aiming for a small wood nearby that she knew would have no one inside it. She and Miiko then automatically ducked as the grenade went off over ten metres above the ground and well clear of any bystander!

By then, they had been joined by the others from the dōjō. "Get a tourniquet on him!" Tsueko snapped as she pointed at the assassin. "We can't let him bleed out!"

Immediately, Pink and Link were on the dazed Tàahm, the latter quickly using her ki and a handy cloth to tie down the severed arm and squeeze off the bleeding arteries while the former moved to cauterise the flesh with her own ki. As the assassin moaned in pain from the searing of his flesh, the woman who had cut off that arm drew out a cloth to clean her lovely blade before she sheathed it. "Watching" this from nearby, Kumomi could only smile; she could sense through the weapon's own ki that it was quite old and had been used a lot. "Does such a lovely weapon possess a name?"

"'Breeze of Evening' would be the closest translation into your language, Kumomi bint-Yún," the newcomer then stated as she gazed in amusement at the silver-haired ex-Seito senior with eyes that were the deep brown of rich soil. "It was a gift to me from His Late Majesty, the King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, when I saved the life of His Majesty, the King 'Abdullāh – when he was still Crown Prince – ten years ago in my first field mission as one of the _Asāsiyyin_, saving him from an agent of al-Qā'idah who decided he had to pay for his 'crime' of supporting the West after their barbarian friends crashed those airliners into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon."

"You are _Asāsiyyin_?" an aged woman's voice then demanded. "It shows in all you do, young lady. I assume this drug-taking drunk male is one of the _Ḥ__ashshāshīn_!"

A tired sigh. "Regretfully so, Elder Mother Kělún," the newcomer said as she gazed on Cologne, who had arrived at the dōjō with her great-granddaughter Shampoo as soon as the grenade had gone off; both lived with Shampoo's wife in a rented house across the street.

"Who are these people, Hiibā-chan?" Shampoo asked as she gave the newcomer a wary look; she could sense the enormous level of ki inside her.

"She is a student of a sister school of sorts of your wife's school, Shānpú," the elder of the Nǚjiézú answered as she gazed up on Shampoo. "They are the true heirs of Master Hasan-e Sabbāh of Alamūt, a former student of Master Hosan's who came under the Immortal One's tutelage in the Yuányòu Era during the rule of the Zhézōng Emperor of Sòng." Cologne then gazed on the barely-conscious Tàahm, a disgusted look crossing her face. "Unlike this pathetic _pretender_ and his friends who shame Master Hasan's teachings in the name of their faith. If they HAVE one beyond drugging themselves with hashish all the time!"

Tàahm exploded. "_**PAGAN WITCH . . .!**_"

_KK-KRACK!_

"That is enough out of you, you disrespectful lout!" Miiko snapped after she had bashed the hapless assassin down with the statue she had used to hit him in the first place with. "Show respect to your betters!" She then gazed in amusement at the lovely woman who had effectively stopped Tàahm right in his tracks with her scimitar. "Especially such a vision of loveliness as yourself, good lady. May we at least have the honour of such a beautiful woman's name?" she then coyly asked.

A graceful bow. "I am Kubra bint-Hasan 'Amaḥakam min-Alamūt al-Qaseer of the city of al-Manāma in the Kingdom of al-Baḥrayn, Lady Miiko bint-Yān." She waved to Cologne as Pink and Link finished work on the unconscious Tàahm. "As the good Elder Mother here just explained, I am _Asāsiyyin_, spiritual daughter and heir of Master Hasan-e Sabbāh and avowed servant of The Arbitrator, the one who commanded the Archangel Jibrā'īl to bestow the al-Qur'ān unto the Prophet Muḥammad . . . "

"May Allāh honour him and grant him peace."

Kubra stopped, her eyes widening in shock before she smiled; it had been Miiko who had intoned the local translation of the Arabic _ṣ__all Allāhu 'alay-hi wa-sallam_, the ritual phrase always uttered when one spoke the Prophet's name . . . and was often mistranslated as "Peace be upon him" in English. "You are one of the Faithful?"

"No, Lady Kubra, nor do I seek to convert," Miiko answered as she smiled at the visiting Bahraini warrior. "But given how much that man did to bring unity to your homeland, he deserves all the respect – both mortal and divine – he is given."

A bow of the head. "You are too courteous, sister."

"So what does bring this foolish male here anyway, Lady Kubra?" Cologne asked.

A sigh. "I regret to inform you, Elder Mother, that his group – who proudly call themselves _Ḥ__ashshāshīn_ out of the belief that the Father of the _Asāsiyyin_ actually APPROVED using drugs while fighting on behalf of the Faithful! – have allied themselves with an apostate in Tripoli who is desperate to do anything to save his so-called 'Great Socialist Jamāhīriyyah!'" As the other people all began to nod in understanding – they had kept track of the news – she added, "Including defying the promise they made in the Treaty of Tomobiki in the presence of the Great Lady Hiromi, her siblings and the Great Mistress Negako . . . and make use of the technology our sisters from Avalon have gifted all of Earth against all their perceived enemies!" A sarcastic look then crossed her face. "Oh, yes, this will also include doing everything to coerce the Great Lady Hiromi into obeying the 'Brother Leader's' wishes. Up to and including murdering her friends. And FAMILY!"

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

And then . . .

"If they want a war, we'll give it to them," Mimōko coldly declared.

The others nodded . . . before a polite cough turned their attention to a person who had just walked up from the house across the street. "Much that I hate to interrupt this, everyone, but there'll be another reason these animals will use to justify such actions," Hayashi Kikuko stated as she held up a dataPADD.

"What is it, Àirén?" Shampoo asked as she walked over to her wife.

Kikuko handed the tablet computer over. The warrior-maiden of the Nǚjiézú flicked on the device, and then she blinked as the front page of the _Yomiuri Shimbun_ appeared there, a banner headline declaring something that seemed straight out of the tabloid press . . . if Shampoo herself knew that the _Yomiuri_ would never do that sort of thing. "Oh, my . . . " she breathed out as some of the others gathered around her to gaze on what was there. "An _aircraft carrier_ from the old Imperial Japanese Navy . . .?"

"And they're still active after SEVENTY YEARS?" Mimōko demanded.

"Read," Kumomi – who had opened her eyes to gaze on the text there – said as she pointed. "Meson deposits in the bay on the island where the ship was hidden. The engineering and medical staff of the _Ušakóv_ also found a steam vent there . . . "

"Which would provide these poor lads with all the power they needed to stay active and alive on a warm ship in the Arctic," Cologne – she had hopped onto her great-granddaughter-in-law's shoulder to gaze on the dataPADD – concluded.

"Damn!" Ranma breathed out. "And they were supposed to be part of the operation against Pearl Harbour? They probably believe that the war's still on and they have to . . . "

Mimōko pointed. "Look."

Her fiancé looked, then nodded. "Oh! Hiromi's taking care of that now . . . "

"A good thing," Cologne stated. "Much that I can understand these lads' devotion to their late Emperor and the beliefs that drove them back then, that stupid war ended over sixty years ago. And they'll be needed to crew the new _Yonaga_ now in orbit . . . " Her dark eyes then brightened. "Ah! So _that_'s where the name came from . . .!"

"Someone remembered something," Mimōko stated . . .

. . . as a cell-phone went off. "Mine!" Tsueko said as she pulled out her device from her pants pocket and then she flipped it open to read the e-mail there. After taking a moment to absorb what she had just received, the leader of Nan'yō quickly sent back a reply, and then she closed the phone up. "Damn . . . "

"What is it, Sonsaku?" Mimōko asked.

Tsueko turned to Kubra. "Kubra-chan, do you know a Birrah Walgett?"

The visitor from Bahrain nodded. "Yes. Birrah bint-Hasan 'Amawadūd min-Alamūt Walgett. She's a sister in the _Asāsiyyin_ originally from England; she's of Persian descent. I know she was asked to come here by Elder Sister Maryam to assist myself and others in making sure these fools behaved themselves . . . " – here, she waved to the unconscious Tàahm – " . . . but I don't know where she is right now."

"Well, Birrah-chan's at Ko-chan's – that's Ebisu Kyoko – dōjō up in Utsunomiya; she asked Ko-chan to pass the word on to all the Seven Schools about what those creeps were planning to do to Kōtchi and her family," Tsueko explained as she waved to Tàahm.

Kumomi sighed. "So we need to bring this fellow with us so everyone who would desire to ask questions can get their answers," she stated.

"How do we do that, Lady Kumomi?" Shampoo wondered. "The police should be here as soon as they get the call about that grenade, so they'll want to arrest this male . . . "

Tsueko smirked. "Well, let's make a call," she said as she flipped open her cell phone and began dialling a long series of numbers. A moment later, she held the device close to her ear. "Ah, Yuka-chan! It's Mago Tsueko! I need your help!"

The others smirked . . .

* * *

Somewhere in Tōkyō's Shinjuku Ward . . .

"Damn! Damn! DAMN!"

A shivering Suzuki Kathryn could only stare with a mixture of disbelief and outrage as the NHK report played on the screen of her hotel room's television. Showing a window picture of an aircraft carrier – _One motherfuckin' HUGE one!_ the native of Hawai'i thought as she replayed information concerning _Yonaga_ in her mind, converting the metric measurements in her head to imperial units and getting a result that scared the hell out of her – from decades in the past, blocked by unknown means from carrying out her mission against the Americans at Pearl Harbour in 1941 . . . and was now on the loose in the Bering Sea, heading south for open water and a date with destiny.

_A crew of _twenty-six hundred_ sailors, including _a hundred-and-forty_ fighter and bomber pilots!_ the freelance terrorist from Hawai'i replayed in her mind. _All still young and ready to fight and die for their country! All of them trained to adhere to that stupid __Bushidō__ bullshit that drove this worthless country into a war it couldn't win! All loyal to an 'emperor' they think is a living god!_ A snort as old Marxist beliefs surged up from deep within her memory. _Not that there is such a thing as a 'god!'_ she derisively observed. _And right now, there's a _space aircraft carrier_ in high orbit over the northern end of Honsh__ū__ just waiting for a crew to join it . . .!_

"Damn! Damn! DAMN!"

_And the damned people here now have a crew to man it!_

Kathryn shuddered as she listened to the news announcer . . .

" . . . motorcycle group known as the 'Yonaga no Tenshi' – all of them being relatives of the crew of the missing _Yonaga_ and led by Masatada Hinano, age 21, a second-year law student at Hiroshima University – have been asked by His Imperial Majesty the Emperor to convey a special Imperial Rescript prepared personally for the attention of Hinano-san's great-grandfather Vice-Admiral Fujita Hiroshi, age 127, the would-be deputy commander of Operation Z in 1941 and the flag officer commanding 6th Carrier Division of the Imperial Navy, then centred on the _Yonaga_," the pretty woman – _Probably an Avalonian_, Kathryn mused to herself – reported. "While the exact words of His Imperial Majesty's Rescript to _Yonaga_ have not been revealed by either the Imperial Palace Agency or the United Nations Earth Defence Force, it is expected that the carrier will be ordered to return to Yokosuka and abort the attack on Pearl Harbour her crew was supposed to be a part of seventy years ago this December . . . "

"Damn! Damn! DAMN!"

Kathryn walked over to her travel bag to draw out a satellite phone. Opening it – and smirking at the fact that since this device was built by Avalonians in Tripoli for the use of the Libyan armed forces well before she had been sent out to Japan to help with Operation: Divine Wind, there was simply no way that organisations like the Mossad, the Japanese Defence Headquarters or the CIA could track the signals – she tapped a series of long keys to open up a link halfway around the world. A moment later, a groggy male voice then called back, "Rosencrance! Who's this?"

"Ken, it's Kathryn," she said.

A moan. "Suzuki, do you have ANY fuckin' idea what time is it . . .?"

"Cool it!" she snapped. "Get your television on and turn it to al-Ǧazīrah! There's a new development concerning Divine Wind. Hurry!"

"Yeah! Yeah! Just a sec' . . .!"

She heard muffled noise in the background – no doubt, Kenneth Rosencrance, who was an honorary colonel in the Libyan air forces still loyal to the Brother Leader in Tripoli, had been sleeping with one of his mistresses when she had called in – and then the _click!_ of a television being turned on. A moment later, a voice in English began relaying news: " . . . the shocking revelation of an Imperial Japanese Navy _aircraft carrier_ from the Second World War was revealed by the Japanese government an hour ago in Tōkyō. This ship, the _Yonaga_ – no doubt, the inspiration for the rumoured name of Japan's new Enterprise-class Type Four space aircraft carrier in the United Nations Earth Defence Force, which has yet to be formally named as a unit of the Maritime Self-Defence Forces of that nation – was commissioned as an element of the infamous Unit 731 in late 1940 and was deployed to a remote island off the coast of Siberia to await the order to 'Climb Mount Niitaka' that officially launched the events memorialised by the quote 'a date that would live in infamy' by American President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the speech he made to Congress on 8 December 1941 to declare war on Japan. Now having freed themselves from the cove – which was called 'Sano Bay' in honour of Imperial Army Colonel Sano Akira, the officer of Unit 731 which discovered the bay in early 1941 – the _Yonaga_ is currently proceeding along the International Dateline between Russian and American waters to eventually sail free of the Bering Sea and head to Hawai'i . . . "

"Holy FUCK . . .!" the American-born air force officer exclaimed.

"You got it, my friend," Kathryn said. "We need the _Sayf_ to sink that thing!"

Silence.

"Why?"

"Simple reason, dickhead! If Fujita and his crew of old men man the new _Yonaga_, there's going to be no way in hell that you'd ever be able to fly off from her!" The terrorist took a deep breath. _Normal soldiers can be so narrow-minded at times!_ she mused to herself. "How soon can you talk to the Colonel about this problem?"

"I'll get to him as soon as I can," Rosencrance answered. "But Kathy, if the EDF is aware of this ship, there'll be a starship ready to snap the crew away from the damned thing the instant Mankib as-Saif puts torpedoes into her!"

"Then we better move pretty quick, flyboy!" she warned. "Get going!"

"Yeah, yeah . . .!"

The link with Libya was cut. "Damn!" Kathryn spat out . . .

* * *

That very moment, in Chiyoda Ward southwest of the Yasukuni Shrine . . .

A sigh. "I'm sorry, Sarah-san. It was too brief a message to triangulate the exact transmission point."

Hearing that, Colonel Sarah Aranson – she was officially accredited with the Japanese government as the Israeli Defence Force's senior liaison officer to the young director of the United Nations Earth Defence Force even if everyone who knew of her realised she was actually a serving officer of the _HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim_ – sighed. "Hino Fukiko, also known as Suzuki Kathryn," she stated as she placed warm hands on the shoulders of her bond-mate/lover, Urushizawa Kimio. "Haven't heard from that bitch in a very long time! And she's here now in Japan?"

"Hai," Kimio said as she gazed apologetically at the beautiful woman with the well-sculpted face, the expressive brown eyes and the military-styled brown hair. "Though we can't find out exactly where she would be at this time. And if she's as intelligent and experienced as you say she is, she'll probably relocate herself before we can attempt to track her down. Much that we have upgraded communications gear to take in all the advances our sisters have given us, it still needs the human factor . . . "

"And you're not a trained intelligence officer," Sarah said.

A demure smile, which was normal for the lovely widow of a former officer of a cruise ship, the _Maeda Maru_, which had been captured by Libyan-sponsored terrorists near Crete in 1984 and taken to Tripoli. There, the entire ship's company and all the passengers had been butchered to the last man, woman and child due to a supposed affront a Japanese businessman – who himself had been executed in Tripoli at the command of Mu'ammar al-Qaḏḏāfī himself! – had done unto the honour of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamāhīriyyah. Of course, while Japan itself couldn't have openly done anything to gain justice for what had happened to Kimio's late husband and his shipmates, there had been a quite secret response which had made it very clear that similar future actions would have dire consequences. That response had been – so Kimio had learned when she began working for then-Captain Sarah Aranson on her first posting to Tōkyō at that time – virtually the same as what had been unleashed on the members of the Black Dragon Society across Japan in the summer of 1945. And by the same person.

Even if, back then, said person hadn't a _**body**_ of her own to claim!

_At least our sister Avalonians and that wonderful Ganzo fellow helped resolve that issue and allowed Negako-sama to become her own person at last!_ Kimio mused to herself as she leaned back into Sarah's stomach, purring in delight as the Israeli began to gently unbutton her blouse to get at the wonderful treats lying underneath it. _Not to mention give poor Ataru-kun two more sisters in Tariko-chan and Hiromi-sama, who finally brought peace to all of the t__ō__shi of the Seven Schools of Kant__ō__ and protects all of us with her friends in the Earth Defence Force . . . oh, Sarah . . .!_

«My beloved Kimio-vayae . . . » Sarah's voice whispered in her mind.

As the two began to passionately kiss, with Kimio standing up from the desk holding the special communications monitor unit Sarah had outfitted in her private office in the Embassy of the State of Israel to the State of Japan overlooking the Kōjimachi-dōri north of the Shinjuku-dōri, they felt their minds once more slip into the mad union of memories that every bonded Avalonian couple could experience at a whim. The divergent histories of a simple Japanese office lady with a soldier of Israel, both united in the early 1980s as friends thanks to a ghastly tragedy that had ripped the former's husband away from her and made her somewhat loyal to the defiant Jewish state on the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. How that experience had taken Kimio to places she would have never imagined travelling to before she had married her husband. Especially to Israel, a nation that Japan – even if formal relations between the two states had existed since 1952 – really hadn't done much business with since the latter country's needs for oil forced it to maintain close ties to the former country's traditional enemies. There, Kimio had met people like Sarah's own teacher in the ways of the Mossad, now-retired Major General Irving Bernstein, a Holocaust survivor – he often joked about it by saying he was an alumni of "Auschwitz, Class of 1945" – who had arranged with the Imperial Palace Agency to unleash the _Saik__ō__ Jinseijutsu_ on the people who had murdered Kimio's husband and his mates on the _Maeda Maru_.

Chief amongst them was the then-lover of Hino Fukiko A.K.A. Suzuki Kathryn . . .

* * *

_Tel Aviv-Yafo, Sunday 12 August 1984, before dawn . . ._

_ "_It is done_."_

_ Hearing that dirge-like voice sent a horrid shiver down Urushizawa Kimio's spine as she turned slowly to gaze on this darkest of all Kami in human form that had just appeared in the Mossad safe house in the southern part of Israel's second-most populous city, near the site of the ancient port of Jaffa. Awaiting the possessed Hana Hirosuke – he was a distant paternal cousin of the matriarch of the Moroboshi Clan of Mutsu-no-kuni, Moroboshi Nagaiwakai – were a small group of Mossad officers, including the silver-haired Irving Bernstein and a young Sarah Aranson. Gazing on her hosts, Kimio had been quick to see the shock and disbelief cross almost everyone's face – she had noted that Bernstein hadn't reacted to it; then again, given the horror of what the man had endured in his youth in southwestern Poland, dealing with a being that was as trained and as experienced as the Heiress of Master Hosan herself was probably par for the course – and then she turned to gaze on the bruised and beaten man at Hirosuke's feet._

_ "Is this him?" she then demanded in a pained voice._

_ Sarah immediately moved to squeeze Kimio's shoulders in a show of support. "_It is him_," Negako/Hirosuke answered in a voice that could make even the darkest of vampires flee into the night in fear of their afterlives. "_Muḥammad 'abū-Qasīm. He led the attack on the _Maeda Maru_ and directed the execution of the hostages._" S/he gazed on Bernstein. "_The remainder of his force are all dead. As you requested of His Majesty. Is there anything further you require of me at this time, Irving?_"_

_ "Did you obtain all the information you could about all this man's friends and working acquaintances, Lady Negako?" the Holocaust survivor then asked._

_ A curt nod as the possessed ninjutsu-ka held up a brightly-glowing crystal of a diamond-like material. "_You have the means to interpret what is stored in this crystal of diamond-pattern mesonium. Your friends in the Ministry of Magical Affairs will be able to assist you to that end_," Negako/Hirosuke stated. "_When I was in Libya, I also had to deal with a man named Harold Goodenough. He was an assassin – a quite shoddy and arrogant one – who often performed missions for Mu'ammar al-Qaḏḏāfī in a 'freelance' mode so as to not attract official government attention on Mu'ammar or his friends in Ṭarābulus. He had six apprentices – one of which being his lover as well – who were not in the target area when I came to deal with Muḥammad and his co-workers. Their information is in the crystal._"_

_ Bernstein nodded. "Goodenough's a monster . . .!"_

_ "_WAS a monster_."_

_ The older man nodded. "How did the _feygele_ die?" one of the younger Mossad officers then asked, spitting out the Yiddish insult._

_ Negako/Hirosuke smiled, a look which nearly made Kimio pass out, especially when one saw that on a background of nearly white skin criss-crossed with black tiger-stripes. "_Hirosuke felt it would be poetic to have Harold suffer the same fate as his many victims. As far as the authorities in Libya will be concerned, he was killed by a rival assassin – or possibly one of his apprentices – out of some unknown slight._"_

_ "Making our jobs in tracking down his friends easier in the long term since Qa__ḏḏ__āfī's people will be probably doing the same thing. __Goodenough did good work for that man. Taking him out of action hurts the Libyans badly," Bernstein stated with a delighted nod. "You have the thanks of the State of Israel, Lady Negako, Master Hirosuke. And I'm sure the Emperor will also be grateful to both of you for making sure these rabid animals won't be running around anymore."_

_ "_Emperor Hirohito requested my services in this issue. I acknowledged his request and resolved the issue_," Negako/Hirosuke stated, and then s/he hummed. "_To ensure there is not a repeat incident, I will contact heirs of another student of Hosan Hirosuke to request their assistance so that I do not put more pressure on my current host's body than required. They are Muslim, but of a sect whose adherents view the Children of Yitshak as their brothers and sisters in faith. They will – once I have appraised them of the whole situation surrounding what happened on the _Maeda Maru_ – go forth to track down Harold's apprentices and any of Muḥammad's friends who were not in Ṭarābulus when I came upon them._" S/he then breathed out. "_I will allow Hirosuke to take over for a time being; he requires the chance to be in control of his own body now_."_

_ The eyes then fluttered as the skin returned to a healthier Oriental pink-bronze shade. As a deep breath escaped him, Kimio winced as she saw the look of deep pain pass across Hana Hirosuke's face. Was he in physical pain over sharing his very _brain_ with an entity that had first seen life nearly a thousand years before? Or was it the deep emotional pain rising from witnessing the deaths of hundreds of terrorists . . . and knowing deep in his heart that it had been HIS hands that had ended their lives?_

_ "Damn . . .!" Hirosuke breathed out before he paused on noting the lone Japanese woman in the room, and then he smiled as he bowed politely to her. "Your husband has been avenged and he will rest in peace now, Kimio-san," he said, keeping to English as that had been the operating language of this mission. "So, Colonel . . . " he then said as he gazed in amusement at Bernstein. "Care to have him woken up?" he said as he waved contemptuously at the unconscious Mu__ḥ__ammad 'abū-Qasīm, a knowing look on his face._

_"Please do, Mister Hana," the colonel stated, nodding._

_ Hirosuke then knelt as two fingers of his left hand pu__nched hard into 'abū-Qasīm's back, causing the terrorist to scream out in agony as his eyes flew open and he began looking around before his nerves picked up the fact that his wrists and ankles were tied secur__ely together and he couldn't try to escape. "Where . . .?" he gasped before his eyes fell on the wide-eyed face of Urushizawa Kimio. "Fukiko . . .?"_

_"No, it's not Miss Hino, I'm afraid," a cold voice then stated as 'abū-Qasīm slowly turned to gaze into the humourless face of Irving Bernstein. "You're now a guest of the State of Israel, Mister Qasīm. And don't count on your friend Colonel Qa__ḏḏ__āfī to try to rescue you. As far as he knows, your whole unit was wiped out to the very last man. And thus, your unit will never again attack innocent cruis__e ship passengers or crew just because of a simple mistake made by an innocent businessman." A dry smile then crossed his face. "Atop that, your other friend Mister Goodenough is now before whatever god he happens to believe in__,__ explaining all HIS misdeeds as well. And we'll be tracking down all his friends and lovers soon enough._

_ "But first, why don't you tell us where Miss Hino is," the colonel then bade, his smile widening. "Our neighbours in Egypt want to talk to her about her involvement in the as__sassination of President Sādāt three years ago . . . "_

_As 'abū-Qasīm sputtered while his mind tried to wrap around the idea of his now being in the hands of the Jews, Sarah Aranson walked Kimio out of the room . . ._

* * *

A knock. "Colonel?"

Hearing that – _just_ as she was about to make Kimio scream to the heavens! – Sarah moaned as she gave her lover an apologetic look, and then she gazed on the closed door to her office. "It's locked, Dina! I'm busy! Come back later!" she snapped.

"There's a woman here to see you, Colonel," the helpful voice of her chief secret communications officer, Master Sergeant Dina Reuben, replied. "Miss al-Mūsa?"

Sarah blinked, and then she moaned. "Just a minute, Dina!"

With that, she and her lover immediately moved to put their clothes back on. As soon as they were somewhat presentable again, the Mossad colonel then headed over to unlock the door and open it. She then stood back as a lovely woman appearing to be about her physical age walked into the room. She was dressed in the quasi-Western clothing preferred by those of the _Asāsiyyin_ when they were working outside those parts of the Middle East where such "revealing" clothes were not seen as kosher for women. "_Shāl__ôm 'Alêkem_, sisters," Maryam bint-Hasan 'Amarraḥīm min-Alamūt al-Mūsa said as her almost-black eyes gazed knowingly at Sarah, and then at a now-blushing Kimio.

"_'Alêkem Sh__āl__ôm_, sister," Sarah stated as she gave the leader of the _Asāsiyyin_ an annoyed look as she closed and locked the door behind the visitor. "You _knew_, didn't you?" she then snarled. "I was just about to . . .!"

"Peace, Sarah! Peace!" the native of one of the eastern districts of Jerusalem – which the Palestinian knew of by the name "al-Quds" – said as she held up her hands in a show of contriteness. "I could sense you and your lover here about to rip each other's clothes off. If the urgency of my mission was not so vital, I'd leave you be."

The Israeli blinked. She had met Maryam al-Mūsa six years before, when the young Palestinian girl – orphaned thanks to parents who had become suicide bombers in the opening stages of the Intifāḍat al-'Aqṣā – had been welcomed into the _Asāsiyyin_ and had been trained to the point where she was bestowed the _laqab_ meaning "Servant of the Exceedingly Compassionate from Alamūt" and made the field leader of the whole organisation. Maryam had actually come to Tel Aviv to deal with the last living apprentice – and former lover – of Harry Goodenough, a French-Canadian named Paul-Andre Marcel. Marcel – who had learned through the grapevine that someone in Israel had arranged for his lover's death years before in Libya – had come to torture and kill Sarah Aranson; he had learned her name from a spy – one that had been devilishly hard for the Mossad to track down – and wanted to get all the information he could from the Jew bitch before he would deal with the rest of the lot. Unfortunately, Marcel's source had been compromised by the _Asāsiyyin_ and – given the nature of Goodenough's all-too many crimes against innocent people across the world – it had been decided in Alamūt that this fellow deserved a special one-way trip to join his beloved in Hell.

Maryam did just that. In a fight that had kept a wide-eyed Sarah Aranson – not to mention one of her junior officers, Lieutenant Devora Hacohen – gaping with their jaws on the floor for ten minutes, the overconfident and vengeance-crazed Paul-Andre Marcel had been literally subjected to a modern-rendition of the "death of a thousand cuts" by the coldly-efficient and uncaring Maryam al-Mūsa. While people such as Moroboshi Negako would have probably chastised Maryam for being "too flashy," the leader of the Daughters of Hasan-e Sabbāh wanted to make _damn_ sure that a monster like Marcel would be broken and shattered before his soul took flight to face the judgement of Saint Peter before the gates of a Heaven he would never see. And at the end of it all, Maryam – who hadn't been the least tired from her exertions – turned to Sarah and calmly asked, "Could I have some Gatorade, please? It's a rather hot day."

While Sarah – who had seen her fair share of death and destruction over the years – had gladly tossed a bottle of the sports drink over to the woman who had just saved her life, the innocent Devorah experienced a total nervous breakdown and had to be confined to a private hospital for a month in the wake of that incident.

"What's wrong?" Sarah then asked as she walked over to her personal fridge to pull out a bottle of Gatorade to toss over to the visiting _Asāsiyyin_.

"A certain apostate in Tripoli is getting very desperate to get his hands on a certain starship that was promised to the good people of the nation we now stand in," Maryam said as she gave Kimio a polite smile, one the Japanese woman returned with a polite bow. "And given the news that just broke out on CNN – not to mention NHK and al-Ǧazīrah – concerning a rather large group of survivors from the Greater East Asia War that have just managed to free themselves from a cove in Siberia . . . "

Sarah blinked, and then her skin paled. While most of the peoples in the Middle East had not blinked when the State of Israel had been given control of two Type Two destroyers, the _Metzada_ and the _Yodfat_, back in November – because, at the very same time, the Palestinian Authority (which had been officially recognised by all the nations of the United Nations as the "State of Palestine" on New Year's Day 2011) had been given control of two Type Three frigates, the _al-Nashashibī_ and the _al-__Ḥ__ussaynī_ – the Mossad officer knew the radicals out there salivated at the chance of getting their hands on even ONE starship so they could carry out whatever madness they wanted to unleash on innocent people. While such hadn't crystallised into an actual operation like what al-Qā'idah had done in 2001 in New York and Washington, all the intelligence agencies of every nation on the planet – supported by many Avalonians as well as their Terran neighbours who never would WANT such a thing to happen! – were on the lookout for it. And now, the Daughters of Master Sabbāh had just learned of such an operation.

"Oh, God . . . " she breathed out as she tossed the bottle over to Maryam, who caught it single-handedly before she uncorked it and took a deep pull of the cool liquid. "Who the hell is . . .?" She then stopped as she remembered what the Palestinian woman had just told her. "Qaḏḏāfī? He actually wants to . . .?"

"Yes," Maryam stated. "He's now at the point of desperation. Even those of our sisters who live in territory he still controls in the western part of Libya have lost all faith in him and his mad theories about running a country. The Spring that is now warming the Ummah is making the Winter of the so-called 'Jamāhīriyyah' fade away with great swiftness." A sigh. "And if he can seize control of the new _Yonaga_ . . . "

"There's a Steel Angel aboard the _Yonaga_ now," Sarah stated. "Tōgō Aoi. She's one of the most powerful of the whole lot. Even if Qaḏḏāfī's people could get aboard the _Khalīj Surt_ or the _Bikku Bitti_ to try to grab the _Yonaga_, they'll . . . "

"They're targeting the Great Mistress' sister and her family, Sarah."

Silence.

"Hiromi-sama?" Kimio gasped.

"Yes," Maryam affirmed with a nod. "Don't worry about them; my sisters have already alerted the Great Mistress and she is watching out for it. But given that the old _Yonaga_ is now sailing back from the mists of history, there is the chance that she and her crew might be targeted to ensure they could never serve on the namesake of their good ship. And to prevent that from happening, I need to watch over it."

"Aboard the _Yonaga_?" Kimio asked.

A shake of the head. "No. I'm sure the Great Lady Hiromi has arranged for a ship or two to watch over this nation's returning warriors. I'll go there."

Sarah sighed. "We'll have to talk to Hiromi then . . . "

_**To be continued . . .**_

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES:**

1) The characters of **Rink** and **Pink** (their given names in this story, **Zhào Xìl****īn** for Link [the given name translates as "beautiful neighbour"] and **Zhào Xìp****īn** for Pink [her given name means "beautiful disregard"] are my invention) first appeared in the manga stories "The Seeds of Tragedy," "Motherhood Flower, Please," "Shampoo - Captive!", "The Forest of Poisonous Plants" and "The Ultimate Medicine" (manga episodes #303-307). The name of their home village, **Èz****āi**, is taken from the Mandarin reading of the characters 厄災, which also go into the Japanese word _Yakusai_ (the characters themselves read "distressful catastrophe"). Their relationship to Zhào Yún is also my creation.

2) **Mochizuki Konatsu** (his/her family name is my invention) was a latecomer to the _Ranma __½_ manga series. S/he first appeared in the manga story "The Sisters of Terror" (manga episode #372). Of course, it rather surprised me that Konatsu – as s/he was raised as a woman – was never given the chance to gain a curse from Zhòuquán-xiāng (Jusenkyō) so that s/he could actually live as a woman. Of course, being Terran-turned-Avalonians themselves, Kuonji Ukyō and Mago Tsueko would have immediately thought of that, as was done for Fujinami Ryūnosuke's would-be fiancé as well.

3) **Bachō Mōki **(**Uma Mikoko**), in the original version of the _Ikkitōsen_ manga (as published as a back story in the first volume of the English translation), was the original star of the series. Then resembling an earlier version of Sonsaku Hakufu (Mago Tsueko), Mōki/Mikoko was actually possessed by the soul of her past-self, **Mǎ**** Chāo** (style name: **Mèngqǐ**) (176-222 C.E.) in lieu of actually being her own person influenced by the soul of her past-self as other tōshi in the main manga series and the anime series were depicted. In the anime, she eventually made her appearance in the first episode of _Ikkitōsen - Xtreme Xe__cutor_, "Wet Fighter."

4) As a reminder, all of the Flower Youth of Noukiios depicted or spoken of in this story are based on the _Koihime Musō_ versions of the characters from _The Romance of the Three Kingdoms_. They also possess "dream-bonds" with their Terran counterparts as shown in _Phoenix From the Ashes_, part 19. **Seu-T'up' Yesu-Te Hechnich'-T'uok'i** (childhood name: **Tai**) is the Noukiite analogue of Bachō Mōki (childhood name: Sui). Her wife, **Seu-Ne Yesu-Ach Hechnich'-Nukyek** (childhood name: **Ryep'**) is the analogue to Chōun Shiryū (childhood name: Sei).

5) **K****ṣ****itigarbha** (also known as **Jizō**) is the Buddhist guardian of children and the patron deity of deceased children and aborted foetuses in Japan. He is normally depicted as a monk with a halo (or nimbus) around his head.

6) The **Zhézōng Emperor of S****òng** (birth-name **Zhào Xǔ**) (1076-1100) was a child emperor of that particular dynasty around the time that Hasan-e Sabbāh managed to convert the citizens of Alamūt to Islam. He ruled China from 1085 until his death. The Era of **Yuányòu** ("first protection") spanned from 1086-93.

7) Translations: **'Ama****ḥ****akam** – Servant of The Arbitrator; **al-Manāma** – Manama (the capital city of **al-Ba****ḥ****rayn** [Bahrain]); **Jibrā'īl** – Arabic pronunciation of "Gabriel;" **al-****Ǧ****azīrah** – Literally "The Island," the proper Romanisation of the name of the international television network that is often written "**Al Jazeera**" in English; **HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim** – Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations; **Feygele** – Literally "little bird," this is the pejorative term for a homosexual in Yiddish; **Yitshak** – Hebrew pronunciation of "Isaac" (the Jewish patriarch and son of Abraham who is seen as the Father of Israel); **'Amarra****ḥ****īm** – Servant of the Exceedingly Compassionate; **Shāl****ôm 'Alêkem** – "Peace be unto you" (the standard reply to that greeting being **'Alêkem** **Shāl****ôm** or "And unto you, peace"); **Intifā****ḍ****at al-'Aq****ṣ****ā** – The Arabic name of the Second Intifada (sometimes called the "al-'Aqṣā Intifada" in tribute to the al-'Aqṣā Mosque located on the plain of the Temple Mound in old Jerusalem) that ran from 2000-05.

8) The fate of the passengers and crew of the _Maeda Maru_ (erroneously Romanised as _Mayeda Maru_) was the theme of the second of Mr. Albano's books, _The Second Voyage of the Seventh Carrier_ (ISBN 0-8217-2104-6, published in 1986). This was the story where characters like **Sarah Aranson** and **Irving Bernstein** first appeared. In this story, in the wake of the Chinese laser satellite launch that crippled the world's jets and rockets, _Yonaga_ was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea to rescue the people on the _Maeda Maru_ in the wake of a combat air patrol from _Yonaga_ damaging a Libyan DC-3 over Tokyo Bay and Mu'ammar al-Qaḏḏāfī freaking out over it; this incident launches the "Jihad War" (as I call it) that drove the rest of _The Seventh Carrier_ novels. Note that both **Suzuki Kathryn** and **Urushizawa Kimio** first appeared in the third novel, _Return of the Seventh Carrier_ (ISBN 0-8217-2093-7, published in 1987).

9) Israeli starship notes: The **Israeli Defence Starship **_**Metzada**_ (pendant number **SDD-43**) is named in tribute to the ancient mountaintop fortress of **Masada** located in the Southern District on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea south of the West Bank territories of Palestine and forty kilometres south of south-east from Jerusalem. Masada was the scene of a catastrophic siege forced on Jewish rebels to Roman rule by Governor **Lucius Flavius Silva** in 72 C.E; none of the inhabitants of Masada survived the siege. This location is also the place where basic training for new recruits of the Israeli Defence Force concludes; at the site of the ruins, the graduates all declare "Masada shall not fall again!" _Metzada_'s sistership, **I.D.S. **_**Yodfat**_ (pendant **SDD-44**) is named in tribute to a small village in northern Israel 17 kilometres southeast of the port city of Acre. Here, in 67 C.E. during the **Great Revolt** (also known as the **First Jewish-Roman War**) of 66-73 C.E., over forty thousand Jewish rebels died in that siege, which lasted 47 days according to the legendary Jewish-Roman historian **Titus Flavius Josephus** (37-100 C.E.).

10) Palestinian starship notes: The **Palestinian National Authority Starship **_**al-Nashashibī**_ (pendant number **SFF-88**) is named in tribute to one of the first prominent Palestinian families then living in Jerusalem; **Ragheb al-Nashashibī** (1881-1951) was once the mayor of Jerusalem. Her sistership, **P.N.A.S. **_**al-**__**Ḥ**__**ussaynī**_ (pendant **SFF-89**), is named in tribute to another prominent Palestinian family who also arose from Jerusalem; three members of this family served as the **Grant Mufti** (the senior Sunni cleric) of Jerusalem's various Islamic holy places, including the al-'Aqṣā Mosque. Both the Nashashibī Clan and the Ḥussaynī Clan were prominent advocates of a separate Palestinian ethnic identity which rose in response to the growing Zionist movement first launched in earnest in the wake of the British takeover of Palestine after World War One.


End file.
